


She Is The Reason

by Faihu



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Feels, Hurt/Comfort, POV Chloe, POV Lucifer, Post-Season/Series 04, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 08:55:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24967063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faihu/pseuds/Faihu
Summary: [Post-Season 4] Six months after leaving for hell, Lucifer is suddenly back in LA. But his behavior is very weird and distant, leaving Chloe confused and in despair. While Chloe is having a hard time trying to find out what's going on, Lucifer is struggling with his own feelings, slowly realizing the mistakes he made.
Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar
Comments: 125
Kudos: 246





	1. Back To The Party

**Author's Note:**

> I've already finished a draft of the complete story and will be releasing chapters as I edit them on a weekly basis.
> 
> I wrote the draft before I became aware of spoilers for season 5 and decided that the story won't incorporate any of them. This is my personal continuation after 4x10 and will diverge from canon. All similarities to season 5 are purely coincidental.
> 
> The focus of the story is on Lucifer and Chloe. Other characters that appear and play an important role in some chapters are Amenadiel, Linda, Trixie, Ella, and Maze.

"Oh my God, Chloe! Good that you're finally here, you have to come see this!"

Ella came running when Chloe went down the stairs of the precinct. She grabbed Chloe's hand and started dragging her towards the kitchen area. Chloe sighed and followed her lead, wondering what had happened. She really didn't feel like seeing any surprises at the moment.

"Hello, Detective."

Chloe was all too familiar with the voice that greeted her. There he was, standing in the middle of the kitchen area, distributing donuts to colleagues, and smiling at everyone as if this was the most normal thing to do in the world. Lucifer Morningstar.

"And here is your donut," he continued while handing Chloe a chocolate donut with rainbow sprinkles. 

"Lucifer?" Chloe's voice was weaker than she expected and she had to take a deep breath before she continued. "What… are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm back to the party, as you can see," Lucifer replied while smiling like he always used to do. "And I thought I would bring some gifts for everyone here to celebrate this." He raised his hands and the police agents around him started clapping and cheering him. Chloe noticed all the happy faces and how no one seemed to question where he had been. And how Lucifer clearly enjoyed being the center of all the attention.

"Isn't this super great, Chloe? Gosh, I love these donuts!" Ella was hyped from all the excitement. She grabbed another donut from the box and ate it while constantly praising how good it tasted and how great this little celebration was.

Chloe slowly shook her head in disbelief, completely lost for words. It had been six months since Lucifer left her to go back to hell. Six months in which she was literally going through hell herself. The first month was the hardest. She didn't know how to deal with the fact that the man who she finally confessed her love to—and who in return admitted that she was his first love—would leave her without saying if he'd ever come back. Chloe started feeling dizzy when all the memories of the night he left and the following months started to come back like a huge wave trying to crush her.

"Since when are you back?" she whispered. She noticed her voice failing and tried not to let anyone see how she felt in that moment.

"I came back a few days ago. Enjoyed some days off in LA and Vegas before coming back to work, but now here I am," Lucifer replied with a grin and took a bite of the donut he was holding. "You should really try them, they're delicious!"

Chloe didn't believe her ears. This entire situation was absurd. For a second she considered she was having a weird dream. But everything felt too real to be a dream. Everything except for Lucifer whose behavior seemed completely surreal.

"Lucifer, are you—" she said, just to be interrupted by Dan, who rushed towards them in a hurry, waving a piece of paper in his hand.

"Guys, we just got a new case in. A woman was found dead in her garden. Here is the address."

Chloe turned around, but before she could yell at Dan she realized that she was at work and that this case was a serious issue. She couldn't let her personal problems overtake her.

"Understood," she said to Dan. Chloe was a pro at keeping a cool head even in difficult situations. And at this moment she was really thankful for it. She continued giving orders to her teammates, making sure not to let anyone know how she actually felt inside.

Chloe hesitated for a second before she looked at Lucifer. She had to talk to him. Now. "Lucifer, you're driving with me in my car."

"Oh, that's not necessary," Lucifer replied. With a smooth movement he appeared behind Dan and took a look at the address he was still holding in his hand. "I'm going there in my own car." With these words he left the kitchen area, leaving Chloe behind dumbfounded.

"Wow, what was _that_?" asked Ella.

Chloe stared at the stairs where Lucifer left. Normally Lucifer and she would go to crime scenes together. It was weird for him to say no to driving with her. She felt Ella and Dan looking at her and wished she could just disappear.

"Well… I have no idea." Chloe shrugged. "Anyways, let's go to the crime scene."

Without looking back at the others, she left the building.

* * *

Chloe was sitting in her car parked in the parking lot of the precinct, unable to start the engine. Thoughts were running through her head, so fast and so many that she couldn't follow them. She closed her eyes, started to breathe slowly, and tried to focus. Lucifer. He was back. But something felt immensely off about it. She didn't know what she was supposed to think about it. 

She had always hoped for a reunion after he had left. In her daydreams, she had always imagined how it would be and it was one of the things that kept her going. Some of the scenarios she had imagined were sweet, like Lucifer surprising her in her apartment. Or that she would go to his penthouse to find him waiting for her. In other scenarios it wasn't as easy but they helped her to stay more realistic and get prepared for possible hardships. But all scenarios had one thing in common—and that was that Lucifer came back because he wanted to be with her.

This real scenario was completely different. Lucifer was back but he didn't seem to care much about her. For outsiders who were not close to him it might look like he tried to fit back in with this celebration, but to Chloe he actually seemed very distant, almost like a different person. Or more like the person he was when they had just met, long before they became closer and before they admitted their feelings for each other. Something must have happened to him. Could angels suffer from amnesia?

After sitting there like this for several minutes she finally opened her eyes and started the car. It was impossible for her to find any clear thoughts and she didn't have time to spend on this right now. She had a case to resolve. 

When Chloe arrived at the crime scene the investigation was already in progress. She made her way through the neighbors standing on the street trying to peek on what was going on, then entered the victim's property through the garden's gate. Her LAPD colleagues were walking around everywhere, making sure not to overlook any evidence. 

Chloe was walking through the garden when Lucifer suddenly appeared out of nowhere next to her.

"What took you so long to come here, Detective?" Lucifer's voice was teasing and this combined with the way he looked at her made Chloe feel slightly irritated. She glared at him but then decided to brush it aside for now. There were too many people around her to talk about it.

The victim was lying behind a rose bush, with rose petals scattered all over her body. Ella was taking pictures while looking at the woman with a sad face. "I don't understand how someone who loves you can do that to you," she muttered to herself. 

"You already found something, Ella?"

Ella jumped up when she heard Chloe speaking.

"Oh, hi Chloe, sorry, I didn't hear you coming," Ella said and shook off her surprise. "Yes, the victim is female and died from the wound in her stomach. Done with a knife, three cuts in total. There are no obvious signs of a fight, which means she must have known the murderer, or that they really surprised her. She's covered in rose petals which makes it look like her death was a symbolic act. Maybe jealousy was involved or someone was really upset about something she did."

"Humans are so weird with their jealousy," a voice next to her said.

Chloe rolled her eyes at Lucifer's comment. _You're one to talk_ , she thought. She still remembered how jealous Lucifer acted when she was together with Pierce. But he had seemingly forgotten about that too.

"I see," she continued to talk to Ella. "Anything we know about the victim's background already?" 

"Mary-Ann Harper, 35 years old, married, no kids," a voice that Chloe was unfamiliar with said.

Chloe turned around halfway and saw a young woman standing there with a notebook and pen. Her long, red hair was tied in a ponytail and with her perfect makeup she almost looked like a model. 

"Oh, yeah, Chloe, this is Christine Palmer." Ella introduced the woman. "She is my new intern starting from today."

"Nice to meet you, Detective Decker," Ms. Palmer said in a friendly tone, exposing a beautiful smile that made her look even more like a model.

"Nice to meet you too," Chloe replied, trying to hide the irritation that was building up inside of her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Palmer. I'm Lucifer Morningstar, civilian consultant for the LAPD," Lucifer said while approaching the new woman with a charming smile. "I see you're new here, well, if you have any questions you can always ask me."

"Thank you, Mr. Morningstar," Ms. Palmer replied with her best smile. Her eyes were sparkling while they were very obviously looking over Lucifer's attractive figure.

"For you it's Lucifer," he replied in a smooth voice, making her blush a little.

"You can call me Christine," she replied with an enticing smile.

"Okay, now that we all know each other, it's time to go back to work," Chloe said, now not even trying to hide her irritation anymore. "I'm gonna start talking to the neighbors. Lucifer, you come with me."

Lucifer's eyes were still on Ms. Palmer. Of course he would like an attractive woman like her. Chloe's irritation grew so strong that she could barely hold herself back anymore. She was about to say something when they heard the ring tone of a phone.

"Oh I'm terribly sorry, but I have to take this," Lucifer explained and walked away from the scene so no one would listen to his conversation. Chloe shook her head and started walking to the street. She didn't understand him. Then again, there had been many occasions where she didn't understand him. Lucifer Morningstar was still a man full of mysteries to her.

Chloe reached the garden's gate when Lucifer caught up to her.

"I'm so sorry, Detective, but I have to leave."

"How come?"

"I have a date now," Lucifer said without any hesitation.

"What?" Chloe was too shocked to say more. Did he really just say _date_?

"See you, Detective," Lucifer said and walked away before Chloe could even think of any reply.

She didn't know how long she was just standing there, unable to do anything. This _had_ to be a dream. Chloe pinched herself on the arm. _Ouch_. Definitely not a dream.

"Chloe, are you okay?" Ella was standing behind Chloe, with Ms. Palmer next to her.

"Yeah, sure." Chloe let out a laugh. _Sounds so fake_. 

"Alright… we're done here and will go back to analyze the evidence."

"Great, thanks." Chloe watched Ella and Ms. Palmer leaving. When they were gone, Chloe took out her phone and made a call. She had to find out what the hell was going on with Lucifer.

* * *

"Thank you for coming." Chloe was sitting at a table in a small cafe, with a tall guy sitting on the other side. His presence felt oddly comforting to her and for the first time after Lucifer's appearance this morning, Chloe could lean back and relax. 

"Anytime Chloe," Amenadiel replied and gave Chloe a warm smile. 

Chloe hadn't talked to Amenadiel in a long time. She had been trying to avoid him or anyone else who knew Lucifer. Seeing familiar faces just hurt too much and she couldn't deal with it.

"How are you?" Amenadiel continued to ask her.

"I'm fine," Chloe said instinctively, a phrase she had told people countless times in the last few months. But she realized immediately that there was no point in pretending. She hadn't called Amenadiel to give him the impression that everything was fine. "Well, actually… I'm not."

"Did something happen? You sounded quite agitated on the phone."

"Yes. Lucifer… he's back."

"What?" Amenadiel showed a surprised expression on his face when he heard the news. 

"Seems like he didn't contact you." Chloe was a little disappointed. She had hoped to find some answers from Lucifer's brother but now she could forget about that part.

"No, he didn't… How is he?" 

"I… don't know. He's weird. He didn't really talk to me. He's acting as he did a long time ago. You know, being self-centered, flirting with other women… And then he left because he had a _date_!" 

"A date? With who?" 

"I have no idea. He wouldn't tell me." Chloe took a sip from her coffee and slammed the cup back on the table. 

"Amenadiel," she continued, "can angels suffer from… amnesia?" 

"No," Amenadiel replied. "Angels are not affected by diseases like humans. Whatever it is, we will remember it for the coming eons." 

"What about amnesia from drug abuse?" Chloe remembered Lucifer talking about taking part in drug activities from time to time.

"We're also not affected by drugs. Even if we take a lot, we don't really feel much of a change like humans. A bit of satisfaction, at most."

Chloe remained silent. The only good explanation she had for Lucifer's weird behavior was just destroyed like nothing. 

"So he remembers?" The question was redundant but Chloe didn't know what else to say. 

"I don't see a reason why not," Amenadiel replied. Another silence followed. He looked at Chloe but she showed no inclination to say anything else so he decided to continue. "I don't know what's going through Lucifer's mind, but there has to be a reason for what he's doing. You should try to talk to him." 

"I've tried to talk to him a few times but he always found a way to avoid it." 

"I'm so sorry, Chloe. I know my brother can be very difficult when he doesn't want to face a problem."

"I just don't understand it." Tears welled up in Chloe's eyes and her voice became broken. "He left me without saying if he'd ever be back. And now that he's back he's avoiding me? Why is he not talking to me?"

"Maybe something happened to him while he was gone, something that's hard to talk about. Hell is a horrifying place to be, and even worse if you already feel horrible yourself."

Chloe didn't reply. The thought of Lucifer suffering in hell was awful. But would that throw him back so much that he decided to avoid her instead of confiding in her?

Amenadiel leaned closer and touched her by the shoulder.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" he offered. Chloe looked at him for a few seconds, then shook her head.

"No, I think I need to do this myself." Chloe raised her head and looked back at Amenadiel. "Well, my lunch break is almost over. Thanks for talking to me, Amenadiel. I feel a bit better now."

"You're welcome, Chloe. Please contact me whenever you need someone to talk to again."

Chloe smiled at him, thankful for the comforting words. The conversation had made her feel a bit more confident. She got up and left the cafe, determined to find out the reason for Lucifer's weird behavior.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my very first fanfiction ever and I'm super excited about it! I've only recently discovered the TV show Lucifer and instantly fell in love with it. I started writing this story to help me bridge the time until season 5 comes out. I hope others enjoy it too!


	2. New Friends

Lucifer never came back to work after he left for his date. In the evening, Chloe was sitting at her desk in the precinct, trying to finish some paperwork. She usually didn't have problems doing paperwork, but today it was hard for her to focus. Her thoughts kept wandering to Lucifer and the events of this morning. 

She closed her eyes, slapped her cheeks with both hands a few times, and tried to focus on the documents in front of her. This was working for a minute, then her thoughts were back to where they were before. 

Lucifer. He looked the same as when he left six months ago. His tall body, wearing one of his exclusive, hand-tailored suits. His dark hair, perfectly styled but still with a wild touch to it. His dark eyes, so lively when he talked and smiled, capable of looking at people with an intense look. His smile, beautiful and ever charming. His voice, smooth like velvet, sometimes in a teasing tone or just plain cocky, but other times soft, serious, and understanding. His strong arms, holding her close to him, making her feel safe. His lips, so soft and warm on hers when—

Someone dropped something in the office and the sound made Chloe startle out of her reverie. She looked around with an apologetic look and sighed in relief when she saw that no one paid attention to her. 

Enough with this. She realized that she couldn't finish these documents in her current state and started packing her stuff. She had to go see Lucifer and finally talk to him or else she would go crazy. 

Chloe left the building and drove toward Lux, Lucifer's nightclub. During the past few months, the club had still been open and managed by someone else even though its owner was gone. Tonight was no different. Loud music sounded through the big room when Chloe entered through the door and dressed up people were hanging out and dancing everywhere. The club was full and it took her some time to go through the big room, checking all the places where Lucifer could be. 

In the end, she didn't find him anywhere and decided to take the elevator to go check if he was at his penthouse at the top of the building. Her heart started pounding faster while the elevator went up. She had been there several times after Lucifer left, only to find the penthouse empty each time. At one point she couldn't bear it anymore and stopped coming altogether. 

"Bing." The elevator door opened and Chloe entered the penthouse.

"Lucifer?"

There was no reply. She hesitated for a few seconds, then decided to go look through the rooms.

"Lucifer, are you here?"

Still no response. Chloe stopped by the piano and let her fingers glide over the keys. The sound was soothing and painful at the same time as it reminded her of the times Lucifer was playing on it, with her or for her. She closed her eyes and thought about how much she missed him playing the piano.

After recollecting herself, she continued her search through the penthouse. She passed by the couch area, her steps leading her toward the balcony. The large windows were closed and she couldn't see anyone outside. Chloe didn't dare open the windows. The balcony was the most painful place in the penthouse as it was the last place where she saw Lucifer, the place where he left her. She couldn't bear going there anymore.

Chloe turned to her right and continued walking, trying to forget about the balcony. She hesitated when she came close to the bedroom.

"Lucifer?"

The only response was silence. Chloe took another step and peeked into the bedroom. No one was there. The bed was made and Chloe couldn't tell if someone had slept in it recently.

She slowly approached the bed and sat down. The silk bed sheets felt great under her hands. She let her hands run over the sheets tenderly, then laid her head down on one of the pillows. It smelled like Lucifer.

Chloe opened her eyes wide in surprise. Lucifer must have been here recently. For a moment she was electrified by her emotions, unable to move. Then she embraced the pillow with her hands, buried her face in it, and took in a deep breath. Her heart was beating fast and she could feel a warm sensation going through her body when she took in the familiar scent that she had missed so much. If only Lucifer would be here now. She wanted nothing more than being close to him and—

"Bing." 

Chloe jumped up from the bed in panic when she heard the elevator door opening. Partly feeling embarrassed of her thoughts she just had in the bed, partly being excited to finally see and talk to Lucifer, she left the bedroom and turned toward the entrance of the penthouse. 

"Lucifer? Are you—" 

It was not Lucifer. 

A young woman was standing in front of the elevator, dressed in a skirt and a sleeveless top, exposing more skin than there was clothing on it. 

"Oh hi," the woman said when she saw Chloe. "I didn't know this was supposed to be a threesome. That's so exciting!" 

"What?" Chloe wasn't sure she heard correctly. This was ridiculous.

"Aren't you also waiting for Lucifer?" continued the woman while playing with her hair.

"Yes, but…"

"I've heard so many amazing stories about him!"

"Of course you did."

"I couldn't wait to meet him… in private." The woman's smile became wide and her eyes were speaking volumes. 

"Of course." Chloe started to feel nauseous.

"I was so happy when he asked me out!"

"Are you the one he met this morning?" 

"This morning? No. He invited me for the night." 

Chloe felt her legs getting weak. A second date. 

"And who are you?" she asked. 

"I'm Carrie. I started working as a new waitress at Lux last week."

"I see." Chloe wasn't interested in hearing more but Carrie seemed to love hearing herself talk about the fact that she was here. 

"Yesterday he came to the bar with two girls in his arms and when I said this looks great he asked me if I was free today." 

Chloe stared at Carrie. Not just two dates. There were more. God knows how many dates Lucifer had since he'd been back. Didn't he also say he was enjoying some days off? It now seemed obvious how he had spent them. 

"Hey, how do you know Lucifer?" asked Carrie. 

The question brought Chloe back to reality. She passed by Carrie without saying anything to her and opened the elevator door. 

"You're not staying?"

"No thanks," said Chloe without looking back at Carrie. She felt sickened and humiliated, and regretted that she had ever come to the penthouse. She had to get away from this place, right now. 

* * *

Chloe stopped her car in the next available parking space when she realized that she wasn't paying attention to the street while driving. She put her arms on the steering wheel and buried her face in them, trying to process what just happened.

Amenadiel was probably right. And thinking about it, it wasn't the first time something like this has happened. Lucifer had a history of behaving in weird ways and escaping into excessive activities.

Chloe remembered the time he ran off to Las Vegas for two weeks to come back married to a blonde bimbo. She thought this was the lowest point he'd ever reached, but it seemed that this time it was much worse. Not only had he gone back to behaving like in the past, completely disregarding that she told him she loved him. He also seemed to avoid her, which made the whole thing even more unbearable. 

After several minutes of brooding over the situation, Chloe started feeling a bit better and ready to continue driving home. She had to stop thinking about it. The only way to resolve it was to finally get a chance and talk to Lucifer without him running away from the conversation again.

A few minutes later, Chloe arrived at her apartment and opened the door. "I'm back!" she said while taking off her shoes and jacket.

"Mom!" Trixie came running to the door, with a big smile on her face. Chloe's daughter seemed super happy this evening.

"Hey, little monkey. How was your day?"

"I made two new friends today!" Trixie grinned all over her face when she told her mother the happy news. "We have a new girl in our class, Anna, she just moved here with her parents, and she's so funny! She said she had cute pet rabbits and that I could come visit her!"

"That sounds great, Trix, I'm so happy for you," Chloe replied. The past few months were also not easy for Trixie. This was mostly Chloe's fault for being absent-minded a lot. But she knew that Trixie was also sad that her friend Maze was not visiting her anymore. After Maze found out that Lucifer went back to hell she disappeared without telling anyone, not even Trixie. Chloe was relieved to see that her little girl found a new friend.

"And just now," Trixie continued, "I had so much fun with Ms. Williams. We played some games and I always won!" Chloe could see how proud Trixie was about her achievement and gave her a hug.

At this instant, Ms. Williams appeared behind Trixie. 

"Okay Trix, I want you to get ready for bed while I talk a bit to Ms. Williams." Chloe gave Trixie a kiss on the forehead and her daughter smiled and ran to the bathroom.

"Thank you, Ms. Williams," Chloe said. "Trixie really seems to like you."

"She's a wonderful little girl, very intelligent and curious," Ms. Williams replied. "She reminds me a lot of my little niece."

Chloe smiled. She was so proud of her daughter and hearing other people making compliments made her even more proud. She was happy that she finally found a babysitter who made Trixie happy and also enjoyed her time with her. 

"Thank you," Chloe said. "Then you'll be back tomorrow?"

"It's my pleasure," Ms. Williams replied and smiled back at Chloe. "I'm gonna pick up Trixie after school again. Good night."

"Thanks and good night."

Ms. Williams took her bag and left the apartment. Chloe let out a sigh of relief when she closed the door behind her.

"I'm done, Mom," Trixie said, now in her pajamas.

Chloe followed Trixie into her room and kissed her goodnight. Trixie snuggled into her covers and fell asleep immediately. Chloe stayed for a little longer, watching her daughter sleep before she finally got up and closed the door to Trixie's room behind her.

Even though she felt incredibly exhausted, Chloe was sure that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep anytime soon. She went into the kitchen, grabbed a glass and some wine, and sat down on her couch, wrapping herself into a blanket. She poured herself some of the wine and started to drink it in small sips, her thoughts going back to Lucifer.

Maybe she should have stayed and confronted him in his apartment. But she couldn't stand the sight of the woman waiting for him. And then she realized that there was an even deeper reason for her not staying. She was afraid of the possibility of him choosing the other woman and sending her away. And with how he avoided her in the morning, this possibility seemed just too real.

"What the hell is wrong with him," she muttered to herself and emptied the rest of her glass in one go. The bottle of wine was so tempting that she grabbed it again, refilled the glass, and drank all of it in one go. She could already feel the alcohol going to her head but she didn't care. It was a welcome feeling after the misery she went through today. 

Chloe closed her eyes and an image of Lucifer appeared in her mind. He was close to her, reaching out his arms, his eyes looking at her with affection. She imagined getting closer to him, sinking into his embrace. She remembered his scent when being close to him, the scent she had just found again at the penthouse, and her longing grew stronger. She wanted to embrace him, touch him, kiss him, and feel like everything was finally alright between them.

_I didn't know this was supposed to be a threesome._

Chloe opened her eyes when she remembered what Carrie said and the nice image was gone immediately. Lucifer was probably at the penthouse now, enjoying his date. Not with Chloe, but with some random stranger.

 _No, no, no._ This was just wrong. 

She took out her phone and scrolled through her contact list until she reached the L section. Her finger was hovering over Lucifer's name for several seconds, hesitating to press it. She had tried to call him several times in the first few months after he left to hell but obviously he had never picked it up and at one point she had given up. 

Chloe took a deep breath before she finally pressed the name. She could hear the phone calling the number and finally a voice at the end of the line. 

"We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service." 

Chloe let the phone sink down and stared into nowhere, the voice still repeating the sentence over and over. This was the first time she got this message when she tried to call him. Maybe the phone company canceled the contract during his absence. Or maybe he did it himself. Either way, he was back with a new number and didn't think it was necessary to update her on it. 

For a second she considered going back to the penthouse. She got up, but her vision blurred and she sank back into the couch. She had had too much alcohol to drive. Probably also too much alcohol for any productive conversation without turning into an emotional mess. And the last thing Chloe wanted to do was making herself look like an idiot in front of this Carrie chick.

Chloe sighed. There was nothing she could do right now. She picked up the phone that had fallen to the ground when she tried to get up, the voice still repeating the same message. She hung up and tossed the phone on the table. The silence felt great, at least for a few seconds before Chloe's thoughts went back to today's events. And then she couldn't stop the tears anymore. This was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter focuses on Chloe's thoughts and feelings after Lucifer's sudden return. I hope you enjoyed it!  
> In the next chapter we'll see more of Lucifer again.


	3. It's Over, Detective

"Chloe." Lucifer's voice was warm and soft when he called her name.

Chloe turned around. Lucifer was standing behind her, looking at her with a tender smile. A few seconds passed by without anything happening, then Lucifer started approaching her slowly. Chloe started trembling with excitement when he came closer. 

"Chloe, careful!" said a different voice coming from her right side.

She turned to the side but couldn't see who spoke to her. When she turned back, Lucifer was gone.

"Lucifer, where are you?" Chloe looked around her. Something seemed to be wrong with her vision, everything was slightly blurred and she couldn't make out where she was. She took a few steps forward, walking slowly and holding her hands in front of her body so she wouldn't run into anything.

"Chloe. I miss you." Lucifer's voice seemed to be far away now.

"Lucifer? Lucifer, where are you going?" The world around Chloe turned darker and darker as she moved forward. Soon it was almost pitch black and she had to stop walking, trying to keep down the panic rising in her.

"You should have stopped when it was not too late yet," the unknown voice said, this time coming from her left side.

"Where am I? Who are you?" asked Chloe. Silence. Not a single sound was to be heard. She could feel the panic in every part of her body now, making it hard to breathe.

"Chloe."

When she heard Lucifer's voice behind her again, she hesitated to turn around. Little by little she turned, still fighting against the panic.

Lucifer was sitting in a golden chair, with at least six girls hovering around him, touching him everywhere. "Come here, Chloe," Lucifer said, licking his lips while enjoying the hands of the girls on his body.

"No," Chloe said, stepping back from him slowly. "I… I'm not one of your playgirls." 

"But I know you want me," Lucifer continued in an alluring voice. 

"No… not like this." Chloe's eyes became wet. 

"But this is who I am." 

"No..." 

"Too bad, Chloe. You had your chance."

The chair with Lucifer and his girls slowly faded away until everything around Chloe was black again. 

"Lucifer… No! Don't go! Come back… Please!" 

Chloe fell down on her knees, unable to get back up while screaming into the depths of the darkness. 

"Don't leave me again! Lucifer! Don't go!" 

"Noooooooooooooo!" 

It took Chloe several seconds to realize that she was screaming in reality. It was so intense that she woke up from her sleep and almost fell off the couch. 

She looked around and it took her a while to understand where she was. The room was dim and cold. On the table in front of her was an empty wine bottle, the glass was lying next to it. Chloe grimaced when she remembered what happened before she fell asleep. 

"Mom, are you okay?" asked a small voice. Trixie was standing next to the couch.

"I'm okay, sweetie," Chloe replied, trying to make her voice sound reassuring. "Come here." 

Trixie crawled up beside her mother who then covered both of them with the blanket and held her daughter tight in her arms. 

"Did you have a bad dream, Mom?" asked Trixie. 

"I did," Chloe said. "But I'm okay now." 

"What was it about?" 

Chloe hesitated for a moment. She didn't want to worry her daughter.

"I dreamed… that Lucifer was back. But everything was different and then he was gone again." 

"Do you miss Lucifer?" 

Trixie's honesty made Chloe smile. 

"I do, sweetie. I really do." 

"I also miss Lucifer. I want him to come back. Will he come back, Mom?" 

Chloe wasn't sure what to tell her daughter. Lucifer was already back, but it didn't seem like things would be like before. 

"I think so," she replied, fighting her tears. She pressed Trixie closer to her and both were sitting on the couch like this until the alarm clock in Trixie's room went off. 

* * *

After bringing Trixie to school, Chloe went to work. She walked around in the precinct and checked different rooms, but Lucifer was not there yet. 

_Maybe he's still busy with his stupid date_ , thought Chloe. It wouldn't be the first time that he arrived late at work because he spent the entire night with another woman. Or several women. Ugh. Chloe closed her eyes and tried to get rid of the images that came up in her mind. 

When she arrived at her desk, Chloe remembered the documents that she didn't finish yesterday and sighed. She got herself some coffee and sat down at her desk, determined to finish them this time.

She had worked on them for a while when she caught herself constantly looking up and seeing if Lucifer was coming. But Lucifer didn't come all morning. Chloe was disappointed and relieved at the same time. She wasn't sure anymore how to react to Lucifer after his weird comeback yesterday.

A bit after noon she finally finished the last document she had. The morning had been oddly quiet and Chloe was thankful for it. She cleaned her desk and went out to grab some lunch. 

The precinct felt livelier when Chloe came back after eating. More of her colleagues were walking around, suspects of other cases were brought in. Her own case didn't seem to really move forward and she decided to visit Ella in the lab to ask for an update. 

When Chloe approached the forensics lab she suddenly heard Lucifer's voice and stopped. She looked around nervously, starting to feel insecure. His voice came from the lab, with the door half-closed so she couldn't see what was going on there. After a few seconds of recollecting herself, she raised her head and continued walking toward the lab, then peeked through the door.

Lucifer was standing inside the lab with the new intern, Ms. Palmer. And it was very obvious from their voices and movements that they were flirting with each other. Chloe rolled her eyes.

"So, Ms. Palmer," Lucifer said in his usual charming tone and leaned closer to her. "Now that we're finally alone… Tell me, what is your deepest desire?"

Chloe could not help being fascinated by the scene. She had seen Lucifer draw out people's desires countless times, but it still felt weird seeing people react to him in such a way, especially after she learned that he was really the Devil. She unintentionally stopped breathing and waited for the answer. 

"I… I want to have my own forensics lab!" replied Ms. Palmer with a shy smile on her lips. The mundane answer broke the spell on Chloe and she stepped into the lab.

"Then I suggest you start working hard instead of flirting with co-workers," Chloe said.

Ms. Palmer turned to Chloe in shock and her face was glowing red. Chloe wasn't sure if it was because of Lucifer's flirting or because of being caught doing it but she decided not to go deeper into the topic. In the end, it was all Lucifer's fault for acting like this.

"Any news on our current case?" 

"Unfortunately not, no…" Ms. Palmer replied. "We're still running some tests to analyze the evidence. I will call you when we have the results." 

"Thank you," Chloe said and moved her head to face Lucifer. "And you and I should talk."

"I'm terribly sorry, Detective, but I have something else to do now," Lucifer said and left the room. Chloe was left behind, once again in disbelief about what just happened. It wasn't only that Lucifer was acting carefree and was flirting with other women. He clearly avoided every serious conversation with her.

Chloe could feel Ms. Palmer's eyes on her. Ms. Palmer didn't know them and the relationship they had, but it made Chloe still feel uncomfortable that she had to witness this scene.

"Let me know when you have any results," Chloe said and left the forensics lab.

Back at her desk she opened the file of the current case and tried to do some internet searches about the victim herself. She was getting frustrated about the lack of results when Dan showed up at her desk. 

"Hey Chloe," he said. "We found the husband of Mrs. Harper. He's in the interrogation room with his lawyer."

"Alright, I'm coming." Chloe stood up, relieved she could do something else. 

"You look really bad, Chloe. Did something happen?" 

"Oh, I just didn't sleep well last night. It was too hot," Chloe replied with a smile. The last thing Chloe wanted at the moment was her ex-husband finding out about her feelings. She had been doing a good job at hiding it during the last six months and she definitely didn't want him to find out now. 

"I think," Dan said after taking a good look at her, "it's better if you stay in the observation room and let me handle this."

 _Maybe he figures what my problem is_ , thought Chloe.

Under normal circumstances, Chloe would have protested and gone with him anyway, but today she was too tired. Being glad that she only had to watch she went into the observation room and examined the suspect through the mirrored window. He was an incredibly handsome man, tall, dark hair, well dressed. Chloe got annoyed when she realized that he reminded her of Lucifer.

"Mr. Harper," Dan said to the man sitting on the other side of the table. "As you were already told, your wife was killed. Where were you two days ago between 8 and 11 pm?" 

"I was on a business trip in Pasadena," the other man replied. His face and voice barely showed any reactions. 

"And what exactly were you doing in the evening?" 

"I was in my hotel room. I had to prepare a presentation for the next day." 

"Do you have any witnesses that can confirm that you didn't leave the hotel?" 

"What are you trying to insinuate?" Mr. Harper narrowed his eyes but his voice stayed calm.

"Look." Dan put some photos in front of him on the table. "We have evidence that your wife had an affair and that you must have known it." 

"I don't know about any affair." 

"The neighbors said that you two had a huge fight a few days ago." 

"This was about something else. Mary didn't want me to go on the business trip. She had a problem with me going away."

"Clingy women can be so hard to handle," a voice next to Chloe said. 

Chloe was so focused on the interrogation that she didn't notice that someone had entered the room. The sudden voice startled her so much that she almost let out a scream. 

"Lucifer!" Chloe's heart jumped and she gasped. "Are you trying to scare me to death?" 

"I'm sorry, Detective. I thought you heard me coming." 

Chloe didn't reply and for a few minutes they were both standing there in silence, observing the interrogation. 

"Look at this poor, innocent guy," Lucifer said after a while. "Daniel is really giving him a hard time, trying to pin the murder onto him." 

"How do you know he's innocent?" replied Chloe. "You're not in the room with him and you haven't even heard the entire conversation." 

"Well, Detective, sometimes you can evaluate people and situations better when you have some distance. You will see things clearer then."

"Is this what you did when you went away for months?"

"Please, Detective. Let's focus on the case."

"This guy claims he did not know that his wife had an affair when there was so much evidence. And just look how calm he is about the whole thing. His wife just died! He's hiding something." 

"Or maybe he just didn't care enough to notice. And wanted to break up with her."

"But he had just married her a few weeks ago! All their friends said they were very happy."

"What other people see and what is real can be very different. Sometimes people just realize that there's no point for them to be together, even after just a short while."

"Are you… talking about the case or about yourself?" Chloe started to get angry at Lucifer's weird comments. 

"I think we should really focus on the case," Lucifer replied, evading her question again. 

"What's wrong with you? Why are you avoiding me and my questions?" Now she was really angry.

At this moment, Dan was done with the interrogation and left the room with the suspect. 

"It's over, Detective. So let's go back to work."

Lucifer turned around and tried to pass by Chloe but she grabbed him by his arm and made him stop. 

"Listen, Lucifer," she snapped at him. "This has to stop. You can't just come back here and completely ignore me. I was worried and I—"

"Detective." Lucifer's voice became serious. The look in his eyes was intense and Chloe could see a faint red glow in them. The devil eyes. She let go of his arm and took a step back.

"Do you want us to work together?" asked Lucifer. Chloe gulped. She was trying to read his tone and facial expression, but he felt like a stranger to her.

"I… guess so?" replied Chloe after some seconds, even though she wasn't sure about her reply at all. Lucifer looked extremely serious, almost dangerous, and she didn't know how to react to it. 

"Then don't ask me any questions. And stay away from me."

"But—"

The door opened and Ms. Palmer entered the room. 

"Ah, hello Ms. Palmer," Lucifer said, his voice back to being charming. 

"Did I interrupt something?" asked Ms. Palmer.

"Oh, the Detective and I were just talking about the interrogation," Lucifer continued with a smile. "Is there anything you need?"

"We've found some new evidence," Ms. Palmer said, returning the smile. "Ella wants to discuss it with you."

"We're on our way. Right, Detective?"

"S-sure," Chloe said and followed Lucifer and Ms. Palmer to the forensics lab, deeply confused about what just happened between her and Lucifer.

* * *

"I'm home!" Chloe tried to suppress the exhaustion in her voice. After what happened in the morning she didn't want to worry her daughter even more.

"Mom!" Trixie came running and hugged her mom with a smile. "Anna showed me pictures of her rabbits today. They're so cute!"

"Sounds great, Trix," Chloe replied and stroked Trixie's hair. This new friend seemed to make Trixie really happy. 

"Good evening, Ms. Decker," Ms. Williams said. She had already packed all her things and was about to leave. "Everything was fine today. I'm sorry but I have to leave now. I have a date," she added with a smile.

"Oh, alright. Thank you again for taking care of Trixie," Chloe replied. Hearing the word "date" made her cringe. She shrugged off the feeling and said goodbye to her babysitter.

Trixie was already back in her room, doing her homework, and Chloe was thankful that she would have some minutes for herself. She sat down on the couch and closed her eyes. 

Lucifer. She kept her distance to him for the rest of the day after what happened in the observation room. He also didn't try to come closer to her even once. 

She remembered his voice and his eyes at the end of their conversation and a shiver ran down her spine. She had seen Lucifer being angry and serious before. She had seen his devil eyes and even more of his devil form. But this time something was different. 

He seemed like a completely different person when he spoke to her. And even though he apparently still wanted to work with her for some reason, he had made it very clear that he didn't want to have anything to do with her beyond work. That she should stay away from him. 

Chloe felt a pain in her chest when she realized the impact of Lucifer's words. He didn't want her anymore. After all this time they had spent together, through all the ups and downs, he was pushing her away now. Without any discussion.

Why was the work thing even still important to him? Habit? Feeling responsible? This didn't seem to be the case. He had been away long enough to fall out of habit and his sense of responsibility had often been rather inconsistent.

She remembered how Lucifer spoke about the victim's husband, how he defended him. Was this a personal case for Lucifer? Did he only come to make sure the right person was punished?

There was no way Chloe could answer any of these questions. But whatever it was, it was about Lucifer or another person. It was not about Chloe. 

The most hurtful part was that Lucifer didn't even tell her. That she shouldn't even ask him any questions. And he was serious about it. He didn't even want to hear her thoughts. She didn't matter anymore. Chloe's pain started turning into anger. 

The doorbell interrupted Chloe's thoughts and she jumped up from her couch. She didn't expect anyone today. Could it be… Lucifer?

"I'm getting the door!" she called in Trixie's direction. It was better if her daughter wasn't there to interrupt them. Chloe almost ran to the door and opened it, her eyes full of hope. 

There was actually an angel standing in front of her but not the one she had hoped to see. 

"Good evening, Chloe," Amenadiel said. 

"Amenadiel…" 

"I came to see how you are." 

Amenadiel was so nice. Someone who actually cared about others. Not like his brother. 

"There's nothing to talk about," Chloe said. "It's over." 

"What? How?" 

"I don't know. Your annoying brother keeps running away from every conversation. He…" Chloe stopped for a moment when she remembered the situation, "he actually threatened me to stay away from him."

"What?" Now Amenadiel seemed shocked. 

"Well, yeah, it's funny, isn't it?" Chloe started laughing hysterically.

"Chloe, I'm so sorry…" 

"Whatever. I don't care anymore. If he decided to end it like this, then whatever." 

"Can I come in, Chloe? We can talk about this." 

Chloe looked at Amenadiel and didn't know if she should laugh more or cry. 

"I don't wanna talk about this anymore. I'm done with it. So. So. Done."

"Are you sure?" 

"I have enough other problems in my life. I don't need a problem I can't do anything about. I can't take this anymore."

"But maybe—" 

"I said I've had enough. But thanks for asking. I really appreciate it. Bye, Amenadiel." 

Chloe closed the door before Amenadiel could reply to her. She leaned against the door with her back and closed her eyes. 

She was tired of this. Tired of dreaming of a better time with Lucifer that would never come. Tired of crying herself to sleep. Tired of waking up from nightmares. Tired of putting up with his weird behavior. 

She was done with it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And when Chloe thought she could finally get some answers, everything gets worse... But Luci is just too good at hiding things.
> 
> I added some more tags because I realized the story is quite angsty at the beginning. But no worries, it's not angst only.
> 
> In the next chapter the POV will change to Lucifer so we will finally find out a bit more about him!


	4. She's A Good Person

"Bing."

The elevator door opened and a young woman entered Lucifer's penthouse, her hair waving as she walked. She put on a seductive smile when she spotted Lucifer sitting at his bar. 

"Hello, Ms. Williams," Lucifer said with a charming smile when he saw her. He helped her out of her jacket while examining her face and body thoroughly with his eyes. She looked quite attractive, like one of the many other women he had over at his penthouse in the past. 

"Thanks for inviting me," Ms. Williams said, still smiling at Lucifer.

"I'm glad you came tonight. May I serve you a drink?" He turned to the bar, poured some whiskey in a second glass, and gave it to the woman.

She emptied the glass in one go, then leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear, "I'm all yours tonight." 

"Sounds great." Lucifer smiled and moved closer to her. He touched her by the shoulder, then moved his hand up to her face, carefully observing her reactions. Then he looked directly into her eyes. 

"So, what is it that you truly desire?"

The expression on her face started changing. The seductive look in her eyes went away and changed to a state of confusion to a realization that seemed to hurt her so much that she started to cry. 

"I wanna be back with my ex-boyfriend," she said while wiping away her tears. "I miss him so much. It was a mistake to leave him." 

"I see…" Lucifer said and pulled back from her. "I think you should go to him and talk about it. It might not be too late yet." 

"Really?" said the woman under tears. "Thank you so much." 

She took her jacket and left the penthouse without looking back at Lucifer even once. Lucifer kept sitting at the bar, turning his empty glass around in his hands, lost in thoughts. 

"The babysitter? Really, Luci?" 

Lucifer turned around when he heard the familiar voice behind him. His face showed a neutral expression but he couldn't hide the irritation in his voice when he replied. 

"And what are you doing here? Coming to annoy me?" 

"I came to check on you, Luci." Amenadiel stepped forward from the darkness of the rest of the room and stopped in front of Lucifer. 

"I don't need you or anyone else to check on me, dear brother, so leave me alone," Lucifer replied and turned back to the bar. He grabbed the bottle of whiskey, refilled his glass, and emptied it in one go. He didn't want to see anyone at the moment and he certainly didn't want to talk to Amenadiel.

"Well, I think it's necessary," Amenadiel said.

Lucifer rolled his eyes. His brother could be such an annoyance. 

"How did you even know I'm here?" asked Lucifer. 

"I've been watching over Chloe since you left. She seemed off since yesterday and when I visited her earlier today, she told me what you did after coming back."

"Great." Lucifer poured himself another glass of whiskey, deliberately ignoring what Amenadiel said about him.

"What's the matter, Lucifer? What exactly are you trying to do here?" 

"That's none of your business. And now leave." Lucifer's mood got worse.

"Do you have any idea what you put Chloe thr—" 

"I said leave!" Lucifer turned around and threw his empty glass toward Amenadiel who evaded it with ease. The glass burst when it hit the ground and made Lucifer even more angry.

"I'm not leaving before you tell me what's going on, Lucifer," Amenadiel said in a calm voice that fueled Lucifer's anger even more.

Lucifer glared at his brother with an intense stare for a few seconds, then decided it was not worth it and started moving toward the elevator.

"Where do you think you're going?" asked Amenadiel, grabbed Lucifer by his arm, and turned him around so he would face him. Lucifer's eyes became narrow.

"Which part of leaving me alone do you not understand, brother?" he growled, trying to shake off Amenadiel's grip, but Amenadiel grabbed Lucifer's arm with all his might.

"You're really trying to piss me off, aren't you," Lucifer said. His eyes started glowing while he was channeling all his devil power in himself. Without any further warning he unleashed his power and sent Amenadiel flying through the room. 

Amenadiel groaned when he hit the bookshelf behind him and several books fell on top of his head. But it only took him a second to recover and come back at Lucifer with all of his angel power. It was so strong that he brought Lucifer down and they both continued fighting and punching each other on the ground for several seconds. In the end, Amenadiel found a position to restrict Lucifer under him. 

"Go away," Lucifer hissed at Amenadiel, trying to mobilize his powers again. 

"Not until you tell me what's going on, brother," Amenadiel replied and pressed his weight even more down on Lucifer. 

"No," Lucifer said in a firm voice, staring at Amenadiel before he continued to speak. "Not here." Lucifer's words were now a mere whisper and took Amenadiel so by surprise that he loosened his grip. 

Lucifer immediately took advantage of it and pushed Amenadiel away from him. The attack was so strong that Amenadiel was flying again a few meters through the room, this time crashing into the elevator door. Before Amenadiel could come back at him, Lucifer got up and started running to the balcony. Amenadiel reacted instantly and followed Lucifer but it was too late for him. Lucifer had already spread his wings and was flying away into the night.

The city under Lucifer was well-illuminated, like an endless sea of lights. Every other time this could have been a pleasant flight, but not today. Lucifer could already sense Amenadiel coming after him. He tried to fly faster with some abrupt changes of direction, but the presence of the other angel behind him didn't go away. On the contrary, it seemed to come closer and closer.

Lucifer flew toward the skyscraper center of Los Angeles, hoping to shake off Amenadiel between the tall buildings. He went up and down, left and right, but Amenadiel kept getting closer. After a few minutes of a wild flight between the skyscrapers, Lucifer finally landed on one of the tallest buildings. Amenadiel immediately appeared from the darkness behind him.

A couple of minutes passed while Lucifer was just standing there, looking into the night, his back toward Amenadiel. When he finally turned around, Amenadiel found a completely different Lucifer standing in front of him. All the fury was gone from him and he only looked like a broken image of himself. 

"Luci…" Amenadiel said, his voice sounding soft when he saw his brother's face twisted with pain. He took a step toward him but stopped when he saw Lucifer taking one step back at the same time.

"Let me help you, brother," Amenadiel continued. 

"You can't help me. No one can." Lucifer's voice was full of resignation. 

"You don't know before you try." Amenadiel looked firmly into Lucifer's eyes.

More time passed by with neither of them saying a word. Finally, Lucifer broke the silence. 

"Do you know why I went back to hell?" 

"I tried to ask Chloe once but she didn't really say much. Something about a weird prophecy and that the world will end if you don't go back and keep the demons in check."

"Well, good. Then you already know everything." 

"I still don't understand," Amenadiel said. "I've never heard of any such prophecy. I tried to make you go back to hell in the past because I was worried about throwing things out of balance, but I've realized that nothing bad was happening with you being here."

"It's not only about me being here. That part alone was perfectly fine."

"Then what's the problem?"

"The problem… is that me being here and finding my first love will trigger evil to be released and hell coming to earth. That's what the prophecy is about."

"That's still something I've never heard about before."

"Me neither, but we've both seen that it's very true. Or do I have to remind you of what happened to Charlie?"

"No… I clearly remember."

"See, and I don't want a repeat of this. Not for Charlie, not for you and Linda, and certainly not for the Detective. Especially not for her." 

"So that's why you left?" 

"Yes. I went back to hell to protect the Detective and her life. She…" he stopped, searching for words. "She's a good person. She deserves to have a good life. Without worrying about weird things happening around her and supernatural beings trying to destroy her life." 

"Then what made you come back to earth?" asked Amenadiel. 

Lucifer stopped speaking. He didn't feel like talking further. What was the point of it anyway? There was nothing he or anyone else could do. This was just a waste of time. But Amenadiel didn't seem to give up. He kept standing there, waiting for Lucifer to tell him more.

"After I stayed in hell for a while," he continued, "the demons accepted that I'm back and started to calm down. But it still seemed different than before, something was still wrong. And then I heard that there was one demon who found a way to go to earth. And that he planned to destroy what would give me a reason to come back here. So I decided to come and deal with it before he… hurts someone."

"I see," Amenadiel replied. "Do you have any clues who this demon might be and how to find him?" 

"No." Lucifer shook his head. "But I imagine he will try to get closer to the Detective and other people or places that are close to me. So I'm checking all the new faces to find out their true intentions. To see if they're harmless or a demon in disguise." 

"That's why you invited the babysitter. And why you're going on dates with different people." 

Lucifer didn't reply to the obvious statement. In the past he would have bragged about his exciting life but right now it was only stressful. There were just too many new people to check. And he took no joy in meeting them.

"Why don't you tell Chloe about it?" asked Amenadiel. "She could also look out for strange things. And she would feel better about the situation if she knew what was going on." 

"I can't."

"Why not?"

Lucifer stayed silent. He averted his eyes from Amenadiel and looked into the distant night sky, trying to keep his composure. Why couldn't Amenadiel just leave him alone? He had tried so hard not to think about the Detective and to focus on what he had to do. Finding the escaped demon was the most important goal. He couldn't let his feelings overwhelm him and put the mission or anyone else at risk. When he looked back at Amenadiel, his eyes were filled with pain.

"I… don't want her to come close to me and get hurt again when I have to leave." 

"And you think you're not hurting her if you come back into her life and treat her worse than a stranger?" 

Amenadiel's reply was like a slap in Lucifer's face. First there was the shock—and after a few seconds of realizing the situation it started burning from the pain.

"Telling her you're going on dates. Did you think she would be fine with that?"

"But this was never a problem in the past. She knew that I met a lot of people all the time. It was normal."

"In the past maybe, but it's different now, and you should know that better than me."

Lucifer stared at Amenadiel and started to wonder how much Chloe told his brother about what had happened between them before they parted.

"And even worse," Amenadiel continued, "telling her to stay away from you. Can you imagine how much this hurts if it comes from the person you care about the most?"

"She… she started asking me too many questions. I… I had to make her stop so she wouldn't come closer."

"That's just cruel, Lucifer." Amenadiel shook his head. 

Lucifer kept staring at Amenadiel without saying a word. It was never his intention to hurt the Detective. He came back to protect her after all. All he wanted was her to be safe and that she had a good life. 

"Okay, I get that you had your reasons for going back to hell," Amenadiel said when Lucifer stayed silent. "I don't agree with how you ended things with Chloe and how you didn't tell anyone else about it. But if that's the way you wanted to end things, then you shouldn't have come back like this. You could have done all these investigations without appearing in front of Chloe and it would have been less hurtful for her. What were you thinking, Luci?"

Amenadiel's speech was followed by another long silence. Lucifer felt unable to respond, unable to even think about Amenadiel's words with a clear mind. Something had gone badly wrong and he couldn't understand completely what he had done. Trying to wrap his mind around it, the burning pain inside him only grew stronger and stronger.

"I'm sorry, Lucifer…" Amenadiel said, his voice being soft again. "I didn't want to blame you. I only wanted to understand." 

"Well," Lucifer replied with a fake smile, his eyes full of hurt, "apparently I didn't think about it at all. But that's just who I am, right? Wherever I go, whatever I do, I only hurt the ones around me, and especially the ones that care about me." 

"Lucifer, I'm really sor—" 

"Enough of this." Lucifer cut him off with a cold voice. "You should really leave me alone now before more bad things are happening."

"I can help you," Amenadiel said and took a step closer to Lucifer.

"I said you can't!" Lucifer took a few steps back until he reached the edge of the roof. There was no railing or anything else that could hold someone back. One more step meant inevitably falling several hundreds of feet down to the ground. For humans at least.

Lucifer had no intention to jump to death. It was pointless anyway as he couldn't die and even if he did, he would only wake up back in hell. And this was something Amenadiel surely knew as well. Still, he didn't try to come closer to Lucifer.

"Please leave me alone, brother," Lucifer said once again. 

Amenadiel looked like he wanted to say something but he didn't. Lucifer was preparing himself for a reaction but there was none. It almost looked like Amenadiel finally accepted that he wanted to be alone. Lucifer let some more time go by but nothing was happening.

Lucifer nodded slightly, signaling that he was done here. Without looking back at Amenadiel, he turned around and took the last step over the edge. The few seconds of free fall felt like a strange rush. Then he spread his wings and used the acceleration from the fall to get away from the building fast. Amenadiel's presence slowly faded away behind him.

The lights of the city under Lucifer seemed to shine even brighter than before, so much that they were blinding him. He stopped caring if Amenadiel came after him and took the fastest route back to the penthouse to escape the blinding sea of lights. After a few minutes he finally landed on the balcony. Thankfully, there were no signs of Amenadiel being behind him.

Lucifer avoided looking around and walked with quick steps toward the inside of the penthouse. The balcony was the most painful place of the penthouse as it was the last place where he saw the Detective, the place where he left her. He tried to avoid it as much as he could to not have to think about her.

When Lucifer came close to the large windows he was frightened by his own reflection in the glass. He looked horrible after his fight with Amenadiel and the flight through the night. His hair was a mess and on the right side of his face was a large bruise. He touched his face with his hands to see if there were more problems when he noticed the faint shine of tears in his eyes.

Shocked about the emotional state he was in he turned away from the window and went inside the penthouse. For a short while he was wandering around aimlessly inside, then he realized that this would drive him crazy and that he had to force himself to sit or lie to calm down.

He went to his bedroom and sat down on the bed. The silk bed sheets felt cold under his hands. It was an unpleasant feeling but he didn't feel like getting up again. He lied down on the bed, staring up to the ceiling, and it felt like the coldness around him grew deeper with every passing minute, making him painfully aware of his loneliness. Lucifer couldn't remember the last time he enjoyed someone's company next to him. It had been a while—now all his interactions with other _beings_ seemed distant and not of any importance. He turned his head to the side and his nose caught a faint scent of what felt so distant yet so familiar to him.

Lucifer opened his eyes wide in surprise. This was impossible. How could he smell the Detective's scent? He moved his head around more, pressed his nose into the pillow, and took in a deep breath. The scent was so weak that he couldn't tell if it was real or if he was imagining it. Lucifer let out a bitter laugh. As if this day wasn't bad enough already, now his mind was also playing tricks on him.

Images of the Detective started materializing in his mind. The Detective at work, at her home, at Lux, at the penthouse. Her annoyed face when he did something stupid, her laughing face when he said something funny, her caring face when they were alone. Lucifer tried to fight against the images, but he couldn't stop them from flooding into his mind anymore.

There was the beach, where she kissed him the first time. It was a soft and shy kiss which came as a surprise but at the same time made him feel so light and ecstatic.

More images flickered by until he was standing outside the house where he fought Cain. Where he tried to convince the Detective yet again that he was the Devil and where they shared their next kiss.

A warm feeling went through his body when he remembered her soft lips on his, and her hand holding his face gently. He missed the Detective—he missed Chloe—so much. 

The way she looked at him. 

The way she made him feel good. 

How she gave him the feeling that he deserved happiness. 

That even the Devil deserved to be loved. 

_Chloe…_

More images appeared, of all the things that happened after his devil face reveal when everything only went down. 

And then, Chloe and him, both standing on the balcony. He was about to leave when she started pleading with him to change his mind and stay with her.

 _I love you._

Lucifer gasped when he remembered Chloe saying those three words. They made him feel so happy but at the same time he could feel the panic crawling up inside him.

He couldn't stay. If he stayed he would destroy her. He could not let this happen. 

_Chloe…_

_Chlo…_

_No, no, no._ He couldn't get too close. 

_Detective._ She was the Detective. 

_Chlo…_

_No!_

_Forget, forget, forget._

Lucifer covered his eyes with his hands and tried to erase the images in his head. He had to stop thinking about Chloe… the Detective before he would lose his mind. 

He had to stop. No more thinking. There was nothing to think about. Nothing. Nothing… Everything went black, an endless ocean of nothingness that pulled him closer, trying to drown him.

Lucifer welcomed the feeling of numbness which eased his pain at least for a few seconds before his thoughts went back to remembering more past events with Chloe. And then he couldn't stop screaming anymore. This was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah... I'm really glad that this chapter is finally out! It continues telling the story from Lucifer's POV and finally explains some things about his behavior and feelings. He didn't turn evil, he's just struggling with the whole situation in his own way, which we know often goes quite wrong... There will also be more chapters from Lucifer's POV from now on, showing how he's dealing with everything after Amenadiel made him realize what he did.
> 
> Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! ♡


	5. It's Not Therapy

Someone once said with the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. 

Today he didn't agree with that.

Lucifer was barely able to sleep during the night. His mind kept fighting the images of the Detective coming back again and again, and the voices in his head whispering her name. And the few times he managed to drift into a sleep-like state he woke up again quickly from nightmares. 

The nightmares had been haunting him for a long time, sometimes more, sometimes less. But whenever he thought too much about the Detective he could be sure to be visited by nightmares so gruesome that he wished he'd never gone to sleep.

In the early morning hours he gave up trying to find some sleep. The bed felt still cold as if it wanted to taunt him. Feeling uncomfortable, he decided to get up before the thoughts of last night would repeat.

Not sure what else to do he went to the couch and turned on the TV. Everything he saw was boring but that didn't matter. Everything was good as long as it kept his thoughts away from the Detective. He turned the volume louder and stared at the screen without really paying attention to what was going on.

He never went to work. After his conversation with Amenadiel, he had no idea how to face the Detective anymore. It was a mistake to show up in front of her. All he could think about was how he hurt her and how he should have stayed away from her.

At one point Lucifer felt empty from watching TV all day. He turned off the TV, got up from the couch, and went to his bar. It was already getting late and the sky outside started turning red, then dark blue, turning the inside of the penthouse into a dark place. He took a glass and a bottle of whiskey, then went to the piano. 

Playing the piano usually had a soothing effect on him. When he focused on the music it was as if the notes were taking him to other places, far away from everything. But today it was hard for him to focus. Again and again he hit the wrong keys, disrupting his attempts to escape reality. 

The first whiskey bottle was empty quickly and Lucifer went back to the bar to get more bottles. The more he drank, the easier it became to play. His fingers became more relaxed and were gliding over the keys skillfully, playing one sad song after the other. After a while, there were four empty bottles lined up on the piano and a fifth one was already half empty. Occasionally he would stop playing and drink a few glasses before going back to playing another song.

In moments like these, he wished he could just get drunk like ordinary humans. Drowning all the pain in alcohol seemed like such a great thing to do. Unfortunately for him, alcohol didn't have the same effect on him as on humans and the only pleasure he got from drinking was the taste. And even that didn't cheer him up at the moment. 

"Bing."

Lucifer continued playing without looking up to the visitor coming to the penthouse. He didn't expect any guests tonight so whoever it was, they were most certainly not welcome. 

"Hello, Lucifer." The female voice was calm and soft.

Lucifer's hands came down hard on the keys and abruptly ended the beautiful melody.

"Hello, Linda," Lucifer said with a fake smile that disappeared when he continued to speak. "I assume Amenadiel told you about the little chat we had yesterday?" 

"He actually did," Linda replied, and came closer to the piano. 

"And so now you're here to treat your poor, poor patient? Didn't I tell you that I no longer need your therapy sessions?" 

"I'm here as a friend." She lifted her hand and pointed toward the empty bottles on the piano. "And I think you really need a friend right now."

Lucifer snorted and got up from the piano. He knew that Linda could be tough to deal with when she had set her mind on something and that he probably wouldn't get rid of her that easily. She and Amenadiel really fit well together in that regard. 

He grabbed the half-empty bottle and another full one from the bar before he walked to the couch area and sat down. 

"Please, Linda," Lucifer said while pointing to the couch on the other side, "have a seat."

Linda came closer and considered the options.

"I think it'll be better if I sit here, with you," she said, with her sight on the couch where Lucifer was sitting. "You know, like a friend."

"Very well then…" Lucifer replied and moved to the side so she could sit as well. He took two glasses that were standing on the table in front of them and poured in some of the whiskey. Without saying any words, each of them took a glass, but while Linda only sipped from it, Lucifer emptied his whole glass in one go and immediately grabbed the bottle to refill it. The silence went on for a while until Linda decided to break it.

"What's on your mind, Lucifer?" she asked in a soft tone.

"Well, I'm thinking that you disrupted the nice time I just had playing the piano." 

"Nice time?" Linda lifted an eyebrow. "You don't look like you were having a nice time." 

"Oh, really. And why would you think that?" 

"You look pretty bad, Lucifer. Have you looked into a mirror today?" 

Lucifer didn't reply. He had avoided mirrors and windows after seeing his reflection yesterday and was certainly not interested in changing this now. 

Linda opened her handbag and started searching through it. She found a small flat item, opened it, and held it in front of Lucifer's face before he could protest. 

Lucifer grimaced when he saw himself in the small hand mirror. His hair looked even more messed up than last night and his eyes looked tired from the lack of sleep. At least the bruise on his face was barely visible anymore. 

"Well," Lucifer said and shrugged, "looks like I forgot to do my hair today."

"Lucifer, you don't have to pretend you're fine. I can clearly see you're not." 

Lucifer looked away and grabbed the bottle to refill his glass. He then turned the glass around in his hand, staring at the golden liquid, lost in thoughts. He was fine. Right? Everything was alright. He was not thinking about the Detective anymore. The Detective… Chl… No. Lucifer downed the drink in one go and immediately refilled the glass. His hand was shaking when he put the glass back to his mouth.

"Lucifer, it's okay to tell me."

He slowly looked back at Linda. Not again. He didn't want a repeat of last night. He couldn't handle another conversation like the one he had with Amenadiel. And he couldn't handle the aftermath of it. He had to forget. Forget. Why couldn't she leave him alone?

Linda kept sitting there but didn't push him to talk again. Lucifer leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes, trying to relax. He had to find a way to make her leave. He couldn't talk about Chl… the Detective. But no matter how hard he tried to think about a solution, his mind was like a mess and not working at all. The only thing he could think about was Chlo… Chl… the Detective. Detective. She's the Detective. 

He laughed out loud when he realized that he was not feeling better than last night at all. All the time he had spent today trying to forget about her was for nothing. She was still there, everywhere. His mind was filled with pictures of her. Chlo… No. No. His laughter died and a painful look appeared in his eyes.

"I think," he finally said without looking at Linda, "I made a huge mistake… again."

"And what is that?"

He slowly turned his face back to her, struggling for words.

"I… should have never shown myself to the Detective again."

"But you did it for a reason, right?"

Lucifer pondered over the question for a while. Until yesterday, he would have easily replied with "to protect her" but after what Amenadiel said to him, he didn't know anymore. Amenadiel was right, he could have protected the Detective without showing up around her. He was good at observing from the shadows, sneaking around people, and performing movements that normal humans were not able to.

"I guess I thought it would be the best way to protect her if I'm close around her," he replied with some hesitation. "But it seems I didn't consider how my behavior would make her feel."

"Sometimes we have the best intentions, but we overlook what implications our actions might have."

Lucifer didn't reply but his eyes showed the late realization of what he had done. 

"I think," Linda continued, "you also had another reason to come into Chloe's life again."

"If you know so much, why don't you tell me, _Doctor_?" Lucifer emptied another glass and held it so tightly that it almost burst in his hand.

"I could tell you my opinion, but I think it's better if you figure this one out yourself."

"I thought this is not a damn therapy session." 

"It is not. But I wanted to offer you a choice."

"I don't care about choices anymore. I don't have a choice."

"You always have a choice. You just need to consider all the options."

"Oh just leave me alone, Linda."

But Linda didn't leave. Several seconds went by with both of them remaining silent. The only thing that happened was Lucifer opening the next bottle and pouring one drink after the other. When the bottle was almost empty, he suddenly stopped the drinking and spoke without looking at Linda. 

"Maybe… Maybe I wanted things to go back to how they were when we had just met. When we didn't have all these… problems. Maybe I wanted to try and see if this could work." 

"But it's not exactly like in the beginning, right? You didn't push her away from you. You had always been interested in her." 

Lucifer kept thinking about what Linda just said. She was right, this was not like it was in the beginning. Still, going back to a time before all the problems started sounded like a great idea. 

"Let's assume you could go back," Linda said. "Let's assume that everything was like in the beginning, but you and Chloe never get very close and just keep things on a very superficial level. Is this what you really want?" 

Lucifer turned his face to Linda and stared at her for several seconds, not sure what to say, not sure what he wanted. 

Everything was so easy when he had just met the Detective. He was just his usual self, the marvelous, self-confident, fun-loving Devil who enjoyed his time on earth to the fullest. Solving crime cases had just added a new, exciting part to his life, and so did his teamwork with the Detective. Life was fun. Life was good.

But the closer he got to the Detective, the more he realized that something was missing.

That something had always been missing in his life.

There was a void in him, a void that he could never fill no matter what he did. Alcohol, smoking, drugs, sex, partying, … the list was long. And while these things could give him some pleasure for a moment, he felt an emptiness again once the rush was over.

But it was different with the Detective. She gave him something that he could never get before. Something that touched him deep inside and slowly filled the void he felt. Something that wasn't there in the beginning when they had met but only grew as they spent more and more time together. When they connected on a level that went far beyond all the superficial relationships he had with people before.

"No…" Lucifer said, realizing that this was not what he wanted. He didn't want to have a superficial relationship with the Detective. He didn't want to go back to a hollow life.

"Then what do you want?" asked Linda.

"I…" Lucifer couldn't continue speaking. Images of the Detective started appearing in his mind again, reminding him of the many wonderful moments they shared together. How they both played on the piano, how they danced together, how he spent evenings with her at her apartment. All the moments that seemed so small yet were of such significance to him. 

He missed spending time with her. He missed her smile. He missed being close to her. He missed how she cared about him. He missed the Detective… No. He missed Chloe.

_Chloe…_

But this was not possible.

The only thing he _truly_ wanted was impossible to obtain.

How could he be with her if it meant bringing her in danger? How could he be with her after what he did to her when he came back?

Still, she was everything that was on his mind. And always had been when he was gone in hell. She was the light that kept him going. The small hope that something would change for the better.

_Chloe…_

"I… want to be with her."

The words were a mere whisper. A feeling of panic rushed through his body when Lucifer realized that he had spoken them out loud.

"That's good, Lucifer." Linda smiled at him. "It's important to understand what you really want."

"It doesn't matter what I really want. I can't be with her."

"And why not?"

Lucifer sighed. "I'm pretty sure you've heard about the prophecy."

"I heard about it but I find it weird. Why is it happening only now?"

"It happens… because I found my first love."

"Well, yes, but why not earlier? It's been a while that you admitted your feelings for Chloe."

"We had never really spent much time together as a… couple." Lucifer almost couldn't say the last word. It was something that he didn't even dare imagine. "So we always averted it before it began."

"I don't remember you two being a couple when the demons came to earth."

Lucifer didn't know what to say. What Linda said was true. But something had to be different than before. 

"As far as I know," Linda continued, "this prophecy was told by Father Kinley. The very same lunatic who tried to use everything and everyone to get you sent back to hell. Do you know what I think about it?"

She made a pause and Lucifer looked at her with a questioning look.

"I think this is all nonsense," she finally said. "And I don't understand why you believe in his words."

"But Linda, bad things _did_ happen."

"Yes. And? How can you be sure it has anything to do with you and Chloe?"

"Then what about the situation now? There is a demon running loose and he could very well harm her or anyone else."

"You deal with it like with all other problems. But don't use these problems to deny yourself what you want."

For a few seconds, neither of them said a word. Lucifer stared at the table in front of him, not sure what to do anymore. Had he made another mistake? But everything seemed so real about the prophecy… even though it came from Father Kinley. Everything just seemed too real.

"I think… it's too late," he said after a while.

"Why?"

Lucifer remembered what Amenadiel told him about the Detective. He doubted that Amenadiel was lying to him and that it was true that she had had a very hard time because of him. He left her without telling her that he would ever come back. And then he did come back but treated her badly.

Suddenly, the moment in the observation room came to his mind. She had really surprised him there with her sudden questions and stubbornness, so much that he couldn't think clearly what to do. He remembered the panic he felt and how it must have shown in his eyes going by her reaction. It was something he bitterly regretted. He never wanted to scare her, never wanted to hurt her.

All he ever wanted was to protect her. But he was blinded by his thoughts of what was right and wrong. And instead of protecting what was important to him, he was ruining it. He could feel the tears rising in his eyes. It all seemed so hopeless.

Lucifer could sense a movement next to him but was too distracted by his emotions to fully pay attention. The next thing he noticed was Linda embracing him. He was taken by surprise by her action but didn't resist her arms.

"This is not something you usually do, Linda."

"Because it's not therapy," she replied. "Tonight I'm here as your friend."

A warm feeling filled his body as she spoke the words. The situation made him feel awkward but at the same time, it also made him feel much better.

"It's not too late, Lucifer," Linda said. "You can still fix this."

"I don't know how," he replied. "I think I've ruined too much this time. And the problem with hell isn't resolved as long as demons are crawling out of it. I still have to go there and don't know when or if I can come back."

Linda sat up to face Lucifer, her eyes looking soft.

"No one can tell you how to fix it exactly. This is something you have to figure out yourself. But the important part is that you need to talk to Chloe about it. And apologize to her. You don't have anything to lose at this point, right?"

Lucifer nodded. He was at a point where he could probably not make it much worse.

"Alright," he said and got up. "I'll go to her right now and—"

"Wait Lucifer." Linda held him back. "I don't think you should rush to do it. Give her a call first. Then both of you have a chance to get prepared to see each other."

"Okay." Lucifer sat back on the couch. Linda was probably right. Dropping by unexpectedly after what happened didn't seem like the best idea.

"I need to go home to Charlie now," Linda said and got up from the couch. "Good luck, Lucifer. If you need me, you know how to reach me."

"Thank you, Linda." Lucifer tried to smile.

When Linda left the penthouse he leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes. His mind was full of the things she told him and he didn't know what to believe anymore.

Maybe he should just leave this place, leave everything behind. Continue to forget. But he quickly realized that he wouldn't be able to forget.

He had to talk to the Detective. And make things right… Whatever "right" was. He had no idea what to tell her. But he had to say something. 

Lucifer went to the bedroom and looked for his phone. He had to call the Detective before he lost his determination.

He went back to the couch with the phone and poured himself another drink. And a second one. And a third one. His hand was shaking nervously when he grabbed the phone again. He took a deep breath and scrolled through his contact list when a sudden realization hit him. 

The Detective was not on the list. 

Lucifer let out a groan and threw the phone on the table. Of course she was not on the list. His old phone was lost somewhere in hell, with no way for him to find it. He had to get a new one when he came back to earth and still hadn't gotten the Detective's number again. 

For a second he considered going to her place but then he remembered what Linda told him. Not a good idea. Lucifer sighed and leaned back on the couch. Tomorrow. He would go to the precinct tomorrow and ask her to talk about it. He would make things right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doctor Linda is one of my favorite characters in the show. I love her therapy sessions and even though they often go wrong, she still slowly manages to make Lucifer aware of the feelings he's hiding inside him. She's such a great person ♡
> 
> The quote "With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts." is by Eleanor Roosevelt.


	6. Déjà Vu

It was early in the morning when Lucifer left the penthouse to go to the precinct. He was wearing one of his best three-piece suits, black and purple combined. His hair was perfectly styled and his face didn't show any signs of what he went through the last two nights.

The precinct was busy but the Detective was not at her desk. Lucifer went to all other possible places where she could be, but she was nowhere to be found. When he came back to her desk he saw Daniel standing close by.

"Hello, Daniel." There had been a lot of tension between them ever since Charlotte died, but Lucifer tried his best to be friendly. He wasn't in the mood for any unnecessary arguments. 

"What do you want." Daniel didn't hide the fact that he was still angry at Lucifer. 

"Well, I was wondering if you've seen the Detective," Lucifer said. 

"Yeah, she was here but then went to a new crime scene." 

"I see. So where is she now?"

"I don't know." Daniel shrugged and turned around to go back to his desk.

"Hey, hey. I thought you're also involved in this case. Shouldn't you know?" Lucifer followed Daniel and tried to hold him back at his shoulder. 

Daniel turned around and pushed Lucifer's hand away. "She has enough help and doesn't need an ass like you being around her." 

"Excuse me?" 

Daniel looked at Lucifer with a grim face. "Look, I've seen how you treated her the last couple of days and that's not what she deserves."

"I know," Lucifer replied, "and I'm here to talk to her about it. So, can you please tell me now where she is?"

"I could, but it's better if you don't make a scene at the crime scene and wait for her here." Daniel turned around and walked away before Lucifer could think of a good reply.

* * *

Lucifer was waiting in the Detective's chair for her to come back to the precinct. His fingers kept playing with different objects he found on her desk while thinking about Daniel's words. Making a scene? Him? He would never do that. Probably. Maybe. He threw the pen in his hand back on the desk where it hit a pile of small paper notes, making a mess of them.

"Hey, what are you doing with my stuff?" The Detective stood in front of her desk, not looking happy.

"Detective…" Lucifer said. He was so surprised by her sudden appearance that he forgot what he wanted to say.

She rolled her eyes, took a file from her desk, and began to walk away. Lucifer immediately jumped up and followed her.

"Detective—"

"I don't have time for your childish games right now, Lucifer," she said without stopping or looking at him. "I have work to do."

"I heard you went to a new crime scene. Did—"

"Yes, and we got a new suspect I have to talk to now, so please let me work."

"I will help you," Lucifer offered. The Detective stopped walking and looked at him, her face looking displeased. 

"That's not necessary," she said. "John will help me."

"Who's John?"

"He started working here two months ago. He's a good guy who takes his work seriously. Not like a certain someone here."

"That's not—"

"I really don't care at the moment." The Detective turned around and went into the interrogation room without looking back.

Lucifer considered following her but then decided to go to the observation room. The Detective was already angry enough at him, not the best situation for the conversation he wanted to have with her. 

When he looked through the mirrored window he saw the Detective already talking to the suspect, a young man who was shifting around in his chair and refused to give detailed answers most of the time. Lucifer could have easily helped with his powers but the Detective kept sitting there, making it clear that she didn't want his help. 

Another police officer was sitting next to the Detective but Lucifer could only see his back. He didn't say a lot and let her do most of the talking. When they were finally done and the suspect left the room, the police officer stopped the Detective at the door.

"Hey Chloe," he said. "Um… do you have a moment?"

 _He calls her Chloe,_ thought Lucifer and his eyes became narrow. John was a young man, probably in his late twenties or early thirties, with blond hair and blue eyes. Lucifer took out the bottle of alcohol he always carried around and started drinking while watching the scene in the other room.

"Sure, what's up John?"

John closed the door and pointed toward the inside of the room before he continued to talk. 

"Thanks Chloe, I really learned a lot from you today." His face showed a bright smile.

"That's great," the Detective replied. 

"I really want to thank you properly," John continued. "Can I invite you to dinner tonight?"

Lucifer choked on his alcohol. 

"Oh… um…" The Detective looked to the ground. "I'm not sure."

"It will just be a nice dinner between friends," John said.

The Detective still hesitated for a moment, then she continued with a smile. "Sure, why not."

"Great! Then I'll come pick you up at seven? 'The Seven Swans' is an amazing restaurant, you're gonna love it."

"Yeah, sure!" She nodded and both of them left the room.

Lucifer stood behind the mirrored window and kept staring into the now empty interrogation room. What happened in there was something he didn't expect. He emptied the rest of his bottle and left the observation room in a hurry. He had to talk to the Detective—

"Ouch!" said a female voice and Lucifer could hear falling objects. When he realized what happened, he saw Ms. Lopez on the ground, with books and papers all around her. 

"I'm terribly sorry for bumping into you, Ms. Lopez. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she replied. "But wow, _that_ was intense."

She quickly gathered all the books and papers around her and got up, being as cheerful as ever. Lucifer was so shocked by the fact that he didn't see her coming that he only stared at the scene in front of him, unable to do anything. 

"Hey, Lucifer… are you okay?"

"Sorry?" Lucifer was still so in thoughts that he hadn't listened to her.

"You look… shocked," Ms. Lopez said while taking a closer look at him.

"Well…" Lucifer didn't know what to say. He was not okay but that wasn't something he wanted to announce to everyone in the precinct. Especially not to the doucheface who was close by.

"Hey, can you help me carry this stuff to my lab?"

"Um… alright," Lucifer replied and took some of the books from her.

The lab was empty when they arrived. Ms. Lopez put the papers on the table and closed the door behind Lucifer.

"No one else can hear you now, so you can tell me what happened."

 _Very clever of you_ , thought Lucifer.

"Did you have a fight with Chloe?"

Lucifer didn't reply. Was he that easy to read today?

"Hey, I've been wondering… where have you been in the last few months?"

"I went back to hell to deal with some things," Lucifer said without really thinking.

"Dude, you're still acting? It's getting old, you know. Or hey, is this like a metaphor? I get it, I also find going back home sometimes like going to hell. Ugh, family can be so annoying sometimes!" 

Lucifer sighed at hearing her innocent chatter. Of course she wouldn't understand him. Whatever happened, she always thought he was just acting. 

"It had nothing to do with my family, this time at least."

"But it must have been pretty serious, huh? You were gone for such a long time… Chloe felt terrible after you left. And since you're back you've been acting pretty weird… No wonder you just had a fight."

Bloody hell, this woman was persistent. But for some reason she didn't make Lucifer feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was her naivety or her honesty—or both.

"Well, to tell the truth," Lucifer said, "this was all about the Detective. She is the reason that I went to hell. She's also the reason that I came back. All to protect her." 

"Wow," Ms. Lopez replied, stretching the word long. "This feels like a déjà vu."

"What do you mean, Ms. Lopez?"

"Oh… nothing, nothing!" She waved her hand at Lucifer. "It's just that you and Chloe… You're sometimes very similar. And you know, you always seem to walk around in circles."

"I see," Lucifer said. It's not that he didn't know that already. It had always been a back and forth between them, and every time one of them took one step closer, something happened and they were both back several steps. It was like a curse. As if they just _shouldn't_ be together. Maybe he should just forget it and—

"Wha—" Lucifer looked in surprise when Ms. Lopez suddenly hugged him. He tried to avoid her hugs whenever he could but today he didn't see it coming. 

"I'm really happy that you're back, Lucifer," she said, still hugging him. "We all missed you a lot."

"Um, ah…" Lucifer didn't know what to reply. The situation felt awkward but at the same time it calmed down the panic that was slowly rising inside him. After some seconds that felt like an eternity, she stepped back, smiling at him. 

"Don't leave us again without saying anything, okay?"

"Um…"

"Also, you should really talk to Chloe. Look, she's just going back to her desk." She pointed to the outside of the window of the lab where the Detective was. "The earlier the better."

Lucifer nodded after regaining his determination. "Thank you, Ms. Lopez."

"Anytime!" Ms. Lopez's smile was angelic.

* * *

"Detective?"

She looked up from her desk and had that annoyed look in her eyes that he knew too well.

"I would like to talk to you," Lucifer said in a tone that he hoped was neutral and friendly.

"Okay?" The look in her eyes started to soften.

"Well, not now and here… How about this evening? We could eat something and talk."

Lucifer noticed the positive reaction in her eyes and hoped it was enough to make her say yes. She kept thinking about his proposal for a while before she spoke.

"Actually… I already have plans tonight. But how about tomorrow?" 

"Tomorrow sounds good too." 

Tomorrow didn't sound good. Lucifer couldn't believe that she preferred this John guy over him. And even worse, she was going out with a guy who he didn't check yet.

"Good." The Detective went back to the documents in front of her. 

Lucifer started getting nervous. Was she scared after what happened in the observation room the other day? Was she annoyed about his behavior when he came back? He couldn't tell and the feeling of uneasiness kept growing stronger. He had to say something, just anything to make her look at him again. 

"So… Can I help with the case now?" Talking about work was probably the best way to start. "Who was our suspect just now? I saw him briefly, he looked extremely nervous as if he wanted to hide something." 

The Detective looked up from her documents. "He was the victim's younger lover. Seems like they started having an affair just recently." 

"Well, if you ask me, it's not always a good idea to have a younger lover. They can be quite demanding and get in your way." 

The look in the Detective's eyes changed and she glared at him. 

"I didn't ask you. Why don't you do something useful, Lucifer? Here, you can bring these documents to the lab and have Ella have a look at them." 

She handed him a pile of documents in a way that Lucifer couldn't refuse. 

"Consider it done, Detective." Lucifer put on his charming smile, then turned around and walked to the lab.

He wasn't happy that she sent him away. It was obvious that she didn't want to talk to him or even have him around. Maybe he should have asked her to talk immediately. But the office wasn't the right place for it. He needed her full attention without distractions.

Lucifer walked into the lab but the only person in there was the new intern.

"Hello, Ms. Palmer." Lucifer put the documents on the table. "These documents are for Ms. Lopez. If you were so kind to tell her about them when she's back."

"Sure!"

Lucifer was about to leave when he suddenly had an idea.

"Ms. Palmer," he said in a charming tone. "Actually, I was surprised to hear about your wish yesterday. You know, your own forensics lab. And I think I can help you…" 

"Really?" Her eyes got bigger.

"I have a lot of connections and can certainly do something."

"This would be amazing!"

Lucifer smirked when he saw that he got her attention. Offering favors and fulfilling people's desires was what he was best at, after all.

"Let's discuss this over dinner, okay? It's my treat."

"Sure! I'd love to."

"Great. I'll pick you up at 6:30."

That was easy. Now there was only one thing left to do. Lucifer left the lab and went into one of the empty meeting rooms. He took out his phone and searched for "The Seven Swans restaurant Los Angeles". The first hit brought him to the website of the restaurant and he started calling the listed phone number.

"Hello, this is Mr. Morningstar. I'd like to make a reservation tonight at 7 p.m. For two people. Yes. Thank you."

Lucifer put away his phone and smiled. He definitely wouldn't risk leaving the Detective alone with a possible demon.

* * *

"Please, choose whatever you want," Lucifer said when he and Ms. Palmer sat down at their table in "The Seven Swans". He had made sure with some extra money to get a table in an isolated corner with a good overview of the rest of the restaurant. 

Some minutes later he could see the Detective and the John guy at the entrance. A waiter guided them to a table not too far away, but also not too close. The Detective wasn't dressed fancy but the John guy looked like he would try everything tonight to impress her. Lucifer sipped his wine and continued his conversation with his companion while observing the other couple carefully.

He had tried to do a background search on the John guy, but it wasn't very fruitful. He was 28, not married, and as a previous teacher only recently decided to switch careers and join the police. Overall he seemed like a boring guy with a boring life. But this didn't mean he couldn't be possessed by a demon.

"... and that's how I decided to become a forensics specialist." 

"I see," Lucifer said, only partly listening to Ms. Palmer's words. "What a fascinating story." 

Lucifer wasn't interested in her story at all. In the past he would have loved to spend time with a woman like her—beautiful, intelligent, and she knew what she wanted. But now it only felt bland and superficial. She was only here with him because he could help her fulfill her wish. In the end, everyone only used him for their own desires. 

"Why did you decide to become a civilian consultant for the LAPD?" 

The question caught him off guard. He didn't expect her to be interested in anything about him. Maybe she wasn't as shallow as he thought. 

"Well… I happened to work together with Detective Decker on a case. And after that I decided to provide my skills to the LAPD." 

"Detective Decker is an amazing person from what I've seen so far." 

Lucifer smiled. "She is indeed." 

His eyes wandered back to the Detective and Lucifer had to force himself not to stare at her. She was more than an amazing person. She was the most special person he had ever met in his lifetime. 

He was still thinking about the Detective when Ms. Palmer got up from her chair. 

"Please excuse me for a moment, I need to go to the restroom."

"Sure." 

Lucifer leaned back on his chair and watched the other table. The Detective seemed to have a good time with the John guy. Lucifer sighed. It should have been him sitting there with the Detective now. He would have ordered the best wine from the card, and recommended her the best dish. And then, he would have talked to her about the entire situation and—

The John guy suddenly got up and left toward the restroom area. Lucifer reacted immediately and followed him. This was the perfect chance to catch the John guy alone and find out his true intentions before he and the Detective left the restaurant. 

When Lucifer arrived at the restroom area he could hear loud voices, both of them sadly too familiar to ignore them. 

"With Detective Decker? Are you serious, John?" 

"Christine, we're not together anymore, I can do whatever I want."

"Sure, you just broke up with me because of her. At least admit it."

"I don't know what you're talking about?"

"John, I know you've had someone else for a while, stop pretending."

"No, I didn't!"

"Is something wrong here, Ms. Palmer?" asked Lucifer, appearing next to her. "If he's bothering you I can deal with it and we can go back to our table." 

Lucifer didn't like the situation. He knew he had to stop it before it turned into some big drama. 

"Oh, I see, so you're blaming me for going out with someone else, but look at what you're doing." The John guy got even more agitated than he was before. 

"This is not a date," Ms. Palmer said. "It's purely professional."

The John guy looked at Lucifer with a displeased look. "He sure looks like a professional escort."

"Excuse me, but that's not exactly what I am." 

"Oh, but it's similar? Is it fun pleasing women who are too crazy to have a normal relationship?"

"What the hell is wrong with you, John?" Ms. Palmer's voice sounded shrill, almost hysterical. 

"Don't tell me what's wrong with me, when you should ask the question yourself!"

"What's the problem here?" It was the Detective's voice coming from behind them. 

Lucifer instinctively turned around when he heard her voice and regretted it immediately. She wasn't supposed to see him here. And especially not with Ms. Palmer.

"Lucifer? Why are you here? What's going on here?"

"He's on a date with Ms. Crazy here." The John guy pointed with his finger toward Ms. Palmer. 

"I am not." Lucifer felt like grabbing the John guy and making him shut up. 

"You brought your date to the same restaurant?" The Detective lifted an eyebrow. "This can't be a coincidence. Were you following me?"

"I…" Lucifer stopped speaking. He didn't want to lie to the Detective. But what could he possibly tell her? He was following her after all. 

"I can't believe you're doing this." The Detective shook her head. 

"Detective, this is not what you think."

"Sure. You couldn't accept that I already had plans for tonight so you were following me. This is just…"

She didn't finish her sentence. Lucifer could hear the disappointment in her voice, could see the disappointment in her eyes. This was not what he wanted. 

"Detective, I—" 

"Chloe, should we go somewhere else?" The John guy stepped forward, cutting off Lucifer before he could say more. "I know some other great restaurants around here." 

_How dare you_ , thought Lucifer, struggling to hold himself back. But he had to be diplomatic to avoid more problems. Especially to avoid the worst case of the Detective leaving with the John guy before Lucifer could check him. 

"Why don't we all have dinner together?" he proposed in a friendly tone. 

"I don't want to have dinner with a person who insulted me." Ms. Palmer glared at the John guy. 

"And I don't want to have dinner with a crazy chick." 

"Okay, stop it, all of you!" The Detective raised her voice. "I'm sorry, but I really don't feel like eating out anymore. I'm going home." 

"I'm sorry for this whole mess, Chloe," the John guy said. "Please let me bring you home." 

_Don't_ , thought Lucifer, tensing up. 

"Thanks John, but I'll go home myself. Goodbye." The Detective turned around and left.

"Well, great job, _John_ ," Lucifer said and closed the distance between him and the guy, staring right into his eyes. "Not only did you insult me and my companion, but you also made the Detective angry. Is this what you truly desire?" 

"No…" John crumbled under Lucifer's intense stare and started to cry. "But no matter what I do, I always end up alone. I only want to be loved by someone." 

Lucifer sighed in relief and stepped back when he heard the harmless answer. This guy was not a demon. 

"I'm sorry, Ms. Palmer but I think it's better if we continue our discussion another time." Lucifer had to get away from all this mess. "I'll bring you home." 

Neither of them said anything when he drove her home and Lucifer was thankful for it. He didn't feel like making small talk after what happened at the restaurant. And even less he felt like talking about what happened. After a short drive they arrived at her apartment. He dropped her off without many words and drove away into the night without looking back. 

_Always end up alone… Want to be loved by someone…_

John's words were haunting Lucifer the entire drive. The parallel to his own feelings was too obvious. 

He had messed up massively. Instead of protecting the Detective he just gave her more reasons to be annoyed at him. 

For a second he considered going to her apartment. But he realized that talking to her when she was still angry would do no good. With a sigh he drove back to Lux. Tomorrow. He would go to the precinct tomorrow and apologize. And this time he would make things right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course Lucifer can't simply talk to Chloe after everything that happened, that would be too easy, right? ;)  
> This chapter was fun to write with so many different things that happened, especially the restaurant scene that totally got out of control and also the scene with Ella. I love Ella and her cheerfulness and how she makes the people around her feel better. She's great!


	7. Down The Rabbit Hole

Lucifer waited until the early afternoon before he went to the precinct. Things went completely out of hand last night at the restaurant and he wanted to give the Detective a chance to calm down. There was no point in facing her when she was still angry.

When he entered the precinct he looked for the Detective everywhere but without success. Daniel and John were gone too and even the lab was empty. Lucifer avoided sitting at the Detective's desk this time and picked another chair to sit down. His eyes went up to the entrance stairs, then to the Detective's desk and back to the stairs again. Still no sight of her anywhere. He jumped up from the chair and started to walk around the precinct aimlessly, his eyes constantly going back to the stairs.

He took out his bottle of alcohol, opened it with nervous hands, and took a long pull. His thoughts went back to the night before. He had really screwed up the entire situation. It was no surprise that the Detective left the restaurant angry. He had to make things right with her, he had to fix this whole mess. Lucifer still didn't know how, but he knew he had to do something.

As he was drinking he saw the Detective coming down the stairs, talking to Daniel and John next to her. Lucifer closed his bottle quickly and walked over to the stairs. The Detective smiled at the two men while talking to them, which gave Lucifer more confidence that she was over being upset about yesterday.

"Hello Detective," Lucifer said with a smile when he arrived at the stairs. The Detective lost her smile the instant she saw him.

"The case is over, we found the killer," the Detective replied. "So nothing to do for you here, Lucifer. You can leave." Without further words, she passed by Lucifer and walked toward her desk.

"Looks like you really went too far this time," Daniel said with a vicious smile on his face.

Lucifer gritted his teeth to not let out any comment. It was bad enough that John knew what happened last night. He certainly didn't want Daniel to know about it but apparently it was already too late for that. Before he could think of a good reply, Daniel turned around and walked away. John only gave Lucifer a brief look, then he also turned around and went away without saying anything to him.

There was no point in talking to them anyway, so Lucifer followed the Detective instead. He had to talk to her to remove the tension between them.

"Detective, wait," he said when he caught up to her. But she kept walking until she was at her desk before she turned around to face him.

"I said you can leave," she said in a calm voice but Lucifer could hear the underlying anger in it.

"Well then, congratulations on solving the case, Detective," Lucifer said, trying to change the conversation topic to something she was more likely to talk about. "Who was it in the end?"

"It was her young lover, who thought she would leave him and he couldn't stand the thought," she replied while cleaning her desk, not really paying attention to Lucifer.

"See, I told you the husband was innocent. And that a younger lover can mean a lot of trouble."

The Detective stopped cleaning her desk and glared at Lucifer. "Well, aren't you the greatest?" 

"Do I sense sarcasm here?" 

"You can sense whatever you want." The Detective went back to cleaning her desk. 

"Are you still mad at me?" 

"Hmm, let me see." She crossed her arms in front of her chest and stared at him. "You come back from hell without telling me, then you are weird and avoid me, then you suddenly want to talk to me, and then you turn into a creepy stalker because I don't go out with you and ruin my evening. Why would I still be mad?" 

"I'm sorry, Detective. But I can explain things to you."

"I'm all ears." 

"Okay, but I don't think here is the best place for it." Lucifer noticed Daniel staring at them from his desk. "Are we still good this evening?" 

"I don't know, Lucifer. I'm really tired of all of this." 

"Then how about—"

The Detective's phone suddenly started to ring. 

"Hello?" she answered the call. "Oh, hi Ms. Williams. No, I haven't… what?"

Lucifer watched the Detective while she was on the phone. Her face looked troubled and she kept running her fingers through her hair.

"No, I have no idea. Okay. I will call you back." She hung up and called another number. Lucifer didn't say anything and kept watching the scene. After waiting for almost half a minute, the Detective pressed the end call button and collapsed in the chair behind her. 

"Did something happen?" asked Lucifer.

The Detective looked at him, her face showing signs of worry.

"Ms. Williams… the babysitter was supposed to pick up Trixie from school. But she said she wasn't there… and the teachers also don't know anything. And she… she's not taking phone calls. Her phone is turned off."

"That doesn't necessarily mean that something happened, right? Maybe it's just out of battery."

"Then why was she not waiting after school? No one even saw her leaving."

"Has she mentioned anything weird lately? Like someone following her?"

"No… nothing weird." The Detective stared at the desk in front of her. "Everything was fine. She said she made a new friend at school and—"

"A new friend?" Lucifer couldn't believe he overlooked such an important thing. He was so sure something would happen to the Detective that he was blind to the fact that Trixie made a really good target too. "Who is this friend?"

"I don't know… I don't really remember what Trixie said. I was a little… distracted. Wait, something about bunnies I think."

"A name?"

The Detective bit her lip. She was quiet for a few seconds before she continued speaking. "I'm sorry, I don't recall any details."

"Okay, Detective," Lucifer said in a calm voice. The last thing he wanted was her freaking out at the possibility that her daughter was kidnapped by a demon. "I'm gonna find out more. You stay here."

"Wait, no!" She jumped up from her chair. "Let me go with you." 

"I think it's better if you stay and use your connections here to find out something." This was only part of the reason but Lucifer didn't want to scare the Detective by saying that he might need his superpowers.

She looked like she wanted to protest, but then stopped herself. "Alright. Please call me if you find anything."

"I will, Detective." Lucifer was about to leave when he remembered something. "There's a little problem, Detective."

"What is it?" 

"I lost my old phone somewhere in hell and don't have your number anymore." 

"Oh."

Lucifer waited for her to say more but she seemed to be far away with her thoughts. 

"Detective?" 

"Oh, sorry. Let's exchange numbers again." 

After they exchanged numbers, Lucifer left the precinct. As soon as he was outside the building he took his phone and made a call. When he was done he got in his car and drove to his first destination as fast as he could. 

* * *

"I found them," a female voice said.

"Good job, Maze," Lucifer replied and noted down the address Maze gave him. "I'll be there in 15 minutes."

Lucifer hung up the phone and started his car. It had taken several hours to find any information on Trixie's whereabouts. The sky was already turning dark and LA's rush hour didn't make it easy to navigate to the place Maze told him. Lucifer's finger nervously played with the steering wheel and not just once he cursed at other drivers who were in his way.

When he finally arrived at the destination the sky was completely dark. Most street lamps were broken, creating an eerie atmosphere that would have made most people get away immediately. Lucifer parked his car in a safe distance and walked the remaining meters to the actual address.

"Took you long enough." Maze appeared out of nowhere next to Lucifer, her figure blending perfectly into the darkness around them. She was holding two curved knives in her hands and Lucifer could sense the thirst for blood inside her. 

"Well, you know how traffic is during this hour," Lucifer replied.

"Blah, blah." Maze rolled her eyes. Lucifer wasn't sure if she was bored or annoyed. Probably both.

"You know that I'm pissed that you went back to hell without saying anything? And without taking me with you?"

"Maze, I'm—"

"Shut up." Maze glared at Lucifer. She played with the knives in her hand and looked at Lucifer as if she wanted to jump his throat. Lucifer was wise enough not to anger the demon more. He was sure he could handle the situation himself but it was easier not to let Trixie see his devilish side when he wasn't the only one going inside the house.

"Let me make this clear," Maze said, "I'm only helping you because this is about Trixie."

"I appreciate it, Maze."

Maze snorted and they continued walking in silence until they arrived at the backdoor. It was a rundown house in one of the worst areas of LA. Nothing like the address Lucifer got from the school when he asked about Trixie's new friend. It was actually easy to get this one. All he had to do was take a charming look at Trixie's teacher and she was happy to do anything for Lucifer. Anna Richardson, 12 years old, her parents both lawyers, moved from New York to Los Angeles two weeks ago. He had visited the address immediately but the house he found was empty.

Maze looked at Lucifer and he nodded. Without making a single sound, Maze opened the door with her knives. They both exchanged glances again, then entered the house. The inside was pitch black but this was no problem for them as they could see perfectly well in the dark. They searched the entire ground floor but there was no sign of anyone in any of the rooms.

"Upstairs," Maze said, and both of them went up the stairs without making any noise. The first floor was dark as well but the last door showed lights from under the door. Maze looked at Lucifer when they reached the door.

"I'm going in."

Without warning, Maze kicked in the door, pulled her knives, and pointed them at whoever was in the room. Lucifer followed her closely and was amazed at the sight in front of them. Trixie and a blonde girl were sitting in the middle of the room with several rabbits around them. The girls screamed when they saw the sudden intruders and the rabbits ran away in panic.

Trixie was the first one who stopped screaming when she realized who was standing in the door.

"Maze? Lucifer? What are you doing here?"

Lucifer stepped forward while Maze only clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes at the situation. She didn't look happy but Lucifer was glad that they found Trixie unhurt.

"We were looking for you," he said to Trixie. "You didn't tell your mother where you went after school and she was worried."

"The battery was empty. But Aunt Margaret said she would call mom." Trixie's eyes went from Lucifer to Maze and back. "Is there a problem?"

"Everything is fine now," Lucifer replied. "So this is your new friend Anna?"

"Yes!" Trixie's eyes started glowing. "She's great and I love her bunnies!"

Anna blushed a little when she heard Trixie praising her.

"I see," Lucifer said and turned to the blonde girl. "Hello, Anna. When are your parents back? I'd like to speak to them."

"I don't know," Anna said. "They always stay at work late. That's why I often stay with mom's friends."

Lucifer looked around the room. Everything was old and shabby. He couldn't imagine a rich woman being friends with someone who lived in a house like this.

"And where is this friend?"

"Aunt Margaret said she would go buy dinner."

Lucifer was about to ask Anna more questions when he could hear a faint sound somewhere in the house. Maze stiffened next to him and licked her lips, smiling in anticipation.

"Very well, I'm busy so I will come back later," Lucifer said. "But Maze wants to stay and play with you and the little bunnies."

"What?" Maze's smile died and she turned around, glaring at Lucifer. 

Lucifer pulled her aside and lowered his voice. "Maze, we don't know how many enemies we're facing. I want someone to stay with the children. Try not to kill the bunnies, okay?"

"You're gonna pay for this," growled Maze, pointing one of her knives at Lucifer's throat. They were both standing still for several seconds, staring at each other, none of them budging one inch. Finally, Maze gave up with a dissatisfied expression on her face. She put the knives back in her pockets and turned back to the kids, faking her best smile. "I love bunnies!"

"Yay!" Trixie jumped up and hugged Maze. "I will introduce you to everyone."

Lucifer relaxed when he saw the kids laughing, knowing that Maze would be there to protect them. He left the room and went downstairs without making any sounds.

The rest of the house was still dark. Normal people would think that no one was home but Lucifer's senses were extraordinary. Without hesitation, he headed toward the living room and opened the door when a shape emerged from the darkness of the room and attacked Lucifer. 

The attacker was so strong that Lucifer almost fell to the ground. This was definitely not a human opponent. Lucifer reacted at lightning speed, grabbed the attacker, and used the remaining momentum to bring the opponent down. Not wasting time, Lucifer jumped on his attacker and they kept fighting at the ground, bumping into a table and several chairs in the process. A normal human would have long since been knocked out by then, but whoever—or whatever—was wrestling with Lucifer was tough. Finally, the attacker gave up and stopped moving.

Lucifer stood up and turned on the light. The room was a mess. Chairs were knocked over and the table and floor under it were full of broken glass. Next to the table was a woman. She was trying to get up from the floor, but the fight had left her without much energy.

When Lucifer came closer, the woman looked up. Her eyes were fiery red and her face was distorted. This was no longer a human woman. 

"Didn't I clearly say no possessing humans?" Lucifer stared at the demon in front of him but didn't receive a reply. "How did you come to earth?"

"Hahahahahaaaahaaaaahaha!" The demon started laughing, distorting its face even more. 

Lucifer pressed the demon to the ground and stared at it with his devil eyes. "I order you to tell me: how did you come to earth?"

"Hhhuuuuhhhhhaaaaahahahahahuhuhahaha!" The demon was squirming under Lucifer, laughing like crazy. Something was wrong here. Normally, no normal demon could oppose Lucifer. He changed his face completely into his devil face but that didn't impress the demon at all. Then, after more seconds of senseless laughing, the demon suddenly froze and fixated its eyes on an invisible point on the ceiling before crumbling down under Lucifer. 

"Oh bloody hell!" Lucifer moved away from the now empty shell of a body in front of him. All traces of the demon were wiped out as if it had never existed. Lucifer stood up and checked the room, then the rest of the house for any signs of more demons or anything that would have controlled the demon. But the house was clean. 

Lucifer sighed and went back to the room with Maze and the kids. When he opened the door, he witnessed a bizarre scene that made him smile. Maze was sitting in the middle of the room, in her dark demon warrior outfit and with two white rabbits in her lap. She had a smile on her face which immediately disappeared when she saw Lucifer. 

"My, my, someone fell down the rabbit hole," Lucifer said and took out his phone. "Do you mind if I take a picture?" 

Maze glared at him and her lips were slowly forming a sentence without speaking it out loud. 

_I'm. Gonna. Kill. You._

Lucifer chuckled before he became serious again. 

"Alright children, I got word from Aunt Margaret that something came up for her and that you should go home. I'm gonna call your parents."

* * *

"Bye Anna!" Trixie waved her hands when Anna went into her parent's car. Lucifer was standing in the doorframe of the shabby house, monitoring the entire scene. He suspected Anna's parents to be involved in the entire mess, but when they arrived he couldn't sense any demonic or other non-human vibes from them. Part of him was relieved that he didn't have to deal with them right now. But this also meant that he had zero pointers for who else was behind the demon.

The car drove away into the night and left Lucifer and Trixie standing alone. Maze was already gone after Lucifer told her to take care of the woman's body. After cursing for not being able to kill anyone tonight, she did what he asked her to do.

"Let's go home," Lucifer said. Trixie turned around and looked into Lucifer's eyes without saying a word. Lucifer couldn't interpret the look of her eyes and it made him feel uncomfortable. He could never interpret the actions of children, which was why he usually avoided them like the plague. Without further words, he went down the stairs to the street and started walking to his car. 

"Hey! Is it okay to let a child walk alone in the dark?" asked Trixie behind him.

"The car is right over there," Lucifer replied, pointing into the darkness.

Trixie remained unimpressed and crossed her arms, looking at Lucifer with a stubborn face.

"Okay little human, what should I do?"

Trixie reached out her hand to Lucifer. He looked at her, waiting for another action.

"You have to hold it!" said Trixie and stretched her hand closer to him.

Lucifer looked at the small hand as if it would attack him. Children could be so terrifying. Hesitantly he reached out and took hold of Trixie's hand. A wide smile went all over her face. Lucifer mustered the best smile he could do, trying to hide his awkwardness, and they continued walking to the car.

Half an hour later they arrived at the Detective's apartment. Lucifer had already called her from the shabby house once he had made sure that there was no more danger. He assured her that everything was fine and that Trixie only visited her friend, that the phone was out of batteries, and that the person who was supposed to watch them was a little irresponsible. He left out the part about the demon possession to not worry the Detective—nothing he said was a lie, just not the full story. The only thing that was left to do now was bringing Trixie to the door.

"We're home," Trixie said with a big smile on her face to Lucifer when they were standing in front of the door.

"Yes, I see it," Lucifer replied, still feeling awkward in her presence. He rang the doorbell and the door was opened almost immediately.

"Trixie!" The Detective let out a gasp of relief and hugged her daughter tight. Lucifer was watching their reunion silently, feeling a strange warmth inside him.

"Thank you, Lucifer." The Detective looked up to him, her eyes showing tears. Her reaction surprised him so much that he wasn't sure what to say.

"Glad to help," he muttered more to himself.

Several seconds went by before the Detective let go of Trixie. "Go inside, Trix, okay?"

"Mom, can Lucifer come in too?" asked Trixie.

"Oh… um..." The Detective looked at Lucifer and hesitated. With a hasty movement, she brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Lucifer unintentionally held his breath.

"Well…" The Detective took a deep breath. "Do you want to come in?"

Lucifer smiled. "Yes, I do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was another fun chapter to write! Maze is so angry but she secretly enjoys spending time with Trixie.  
> Fun fact: originally I had planned to simply let Lucifer bring back home both kids with his car but then I realized he only has a two-seater car which couldn't fit them all... which gave me the chance to come up with a better Lucifer&Trixie scene. I love those two together ♡
> 
> Also, Lucifer and Chloe are finally at the point where they will start talking about everything. What will happen...? (The next chapter will be longer than the previous ones)


	8. You're Not Alone

Chloe closed the door of her apartment behind Lucifer. She hadn't expected him to be here, she hadn't even expected to talk to him this evening. If she was honest to herself, she was totally unprepared for this whole situation.

All the time she had hoped he would come back and that they would talk about everything. But now that this seemed so close to being happening, Chloe suddenly felt nervous about it. All the weird things he did after coming back made her feel uncertain. She wasn't confident about them getting together anymore, and she somehow expected more bad things to happen now. That, or him just leaving her again, breaking her heart even more.

Trixie had already grabbed Lucifer's hand and was leading him toward the living room. Chloe knew how much Lucifer hated being surrounded by kids—and even worse, being touched by kids—but today he seemed a little different. His movements were still awkward around Trixie, but he didn't try to shake her off like usual.

"Mom, can we make burgers?" Trixie asked from the kitchen area.

"Sure, sweetie. I'll make some." 

"No, we all make them!" Trixie protested.

Chloe looked with an apologetic look at Lucifer. This was surely not what he wanted to do.

"Well, I'd say let's make some devilish good burgers," Lucifer said with a smirk. Chloe opened her eyes wide in surprise, wondering if she had misheard him. As much as she disliked how his behavior had changed the last few days, this one was actually a good change.

Trixie was cheering and started taking ingredients from the fridge. She loved making burgers and explained Lucifer in detail what he had to do to make them. And to Chloe's surprise, he kept going along with it.

"No, no," Trixie said after a while. "You're doing it wrong. You're putting too much cheese."

"Well, little human, I think there can't be enough cheese."

"No, that's wrong!" 

"Fine, you're the boss." Lucifer removed some of the cheese.

Chloe chuckled. It was hard to believe that the devil himself was bossed around by a child. Lucifer looked at Chloe and she put her hands over her mouth, feeling caught at laughing at the scene. She thought Lucifer would be angry, but his look was different. Chloe couldn't comprehend what it was exactly and it made her feel embarrassed. To distract from herself, she took the dishes and went to set the table.

"We're done!" Trixie said after a few minutes with a wide smile. Chloe hadn't seen Trixie this happy in a long time and it warmed up her heart.

During dinner, Trixie told Chloe about her friend Anna and how they went to Aunt Margaret and played with the bunnies. Lucifer was quiet during most parts of the story and only said something when he was asked. Chloe found this weird, usually Lucifer couldn't stay still for long.

After Trixie was done with her story, she suddenly changed the topic. "Lucifer, where have you been in the last months?"

The question seemed to have caught Lucifer off guard. He looked to Chloe, then back to Trixie.

"I had to go… deal with some issues at the place I stayed before I came to LA," he replied with caution.

"Are you staying now?" Trixie asked bluntly.

"Well…" Lucifer was looking for words. "Sometimes things are a bit complicated."

"What does that mean?"

"He means he still has to sort out some things," Chloe said when she saw Lucifer struggling for an answer. "And I think you should go to bed now. It's really late."

"But—"

"No buts. Go get ready for bed, okay?"

Trixie looked like she wanted to protest but then disappeared to the bathroom. Chloe stood up from the table without saying a word and started taking the dishes to the kitchen sink. Lucifer got up as well and helped her. The silence grew uncomfortable for Chloe but neither of them broke it. A few minutes later, Trixie came back.

"I'm ready, Mom. Good night, Lucifer!"

"Good night, little human." Lucifer waved at Trixie.

Chloe brought Trixie to bed, thankful that she didn't have to argue with her daughter about staying up late today. When she came back, Lucifer was sitting on the couch, with a bottle of wine and two glasses on the table. Chloe was worried he'd use the chance to leave, but it seemed like he was up for staying longer. 

"Would you like some wine, Detective?" he asked. 

"Sure." Chloe sat on the couch next to him. Now that they were alone she felt even more nervous.

Lucifer poured in some wine and they both drank in silence. Chloe wasn't sure if she should talk. Hundreds of thoughts were running through her mind and she didn't know where to even start. It was Lucifer who finally broke the silence. 

"About what happened yesterday at the restaurant…" Lucifer hesitated and stared at the glass in his hand for a while before he continued. "That wasn't my plan, Detective."

His… _plan_? What a weird thing to say.

"So? Then what was the plan?" she asked.

"I just wanted to watch over you." 

"Watch over me? Why?" 

"I wanted to make that sure nothing happens with you and this… _guy_."

Chloe looked at him in disbelief. "That nothing happens? So you're allowed to go on a million dates and I'm not? It wasn't even really a date."

"No, I don't mean it like that. I thought that John might be a demon."

"That sounds like a lame excuse, Lucifer."

"It is not. There was actually a demon who left hell." He put the glass back on the table and refilled it with more wine.

"And you couldn't just order them to go back?"

"It was different this time. I had no control over it. And first I had to even find it."

"So the reason you came back from hell was to hunt a demon?"

"Pretty much, yes."

Chloe stared at Lucifer. All the time she had hoped he would come back to see her, to be with her. But apparently that was never his intention. She swallowed hard before she asked him the next question. 

"Is this why your behavior was so weird? I still don't understand." 

"Well, there were a few things that went wrong…" 

"What's with all the dates? All those women you met…" The image of Carrie came up in Chloe's mind and she remembered the terrible night she had because of her.

"They were all people who were new in my or your life or otherwise connected to us. I met them to check if they're a demon or not." 

Chloe remembered Lucifer flirting with the new intern and asking her about her deepest desire in the forensics lab. She didn't know how Lucifer was able to tell if someone was a demon or not, but getting closer to them and hearing their hidden desires seemed like a plausible way to find out their true identity.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" Chloe asked.

"I didn't want to worry you. I actually thought it wouldn't take so long." 

"And you thought I wouldn't be worried if you do all these weird things?" 

Lucifer didn't reply. 

"You were avoiding me," Chloe said with tears welling up in her eyes. "You basically threatened me to stay away from you."

"I thought it would be best for you if you didn't come close to me." 

"How? How would this be best for me?"

"Well, that's one of the things that went wrong and I realized this after talking to Amenadiel…

I should have just searched for the demon without showing myself to anyone." 

"What?" 

"It was a mistake to get you involved. I should have done it all by myself." 

Chloe thought if she got a chance to talk to Lucifer, she would understand him better. And that they could solve their problems together. But all Lucifer was doing now was pushing her away, telling her that it would have been better if they had never met again. Chloe couldn't take it anymore. Tears were now running down her cheeks and her voice was shaky when she spoke. 

"Do you have any idea of how I feel? Or how I felt when you left me at the penthouse six months ago? When you didn't come back? And how it was for me when you finally did come back but pushed me away?" 

Chloe took a deep breath and continued speaking. 

"You have no idea what you put me through. You can't just tell me something about being your first love and then disappear. With no discussion. You just did whatever _you_ wanted to, without even giving _me_ a chance to say or do something!" 

Before Lucifer could say a word, Chloe continued her rant. She was almost yelling now, tears still flowing from her eyes. 

"But that's what you always do. _Always_. You do whatever the hell you want, you make all the decisions yourself, you don't give other people a choice. Oh, I guess that's because you're the devil, right? You have the power to do whatever you want and you just do whatever suits you!"

Chloe stopped when she realized that she had gone too far. She didn't want to be so angry, but she couldn't stop herself anymore. She had bottled up too much pain inside her from the last few months, which was now intensified by Lucifer pushing her away. She had to let it out but regretted it immediately.

She fully expected Lucifer to get up and leave. He had never been good at talking about problems and Chloe could see that the entire conversation made him uncomfortable. But Lucifer stayed on the couch, much to Chloe's surprise. 

"That is not true," Lucifer said without specifying what he was referring to.

"Then what is?" 

"I told you, I had to go back to keep hell away from earth. I had no choice."

"That's not true! You had the choice to at least discuss it with me properly!"

"And what would have changed? Nothing!" Now it was Lucifer who got louder.

"How do you know before you even try it!"

Lucifer was about to say something, but then decided against it and remained silent. Chloe's tears didn't stop and she almost wanted Lucifer to leave now. It was too much for her. There was no point in telling him her feelings when all that happened was her running against a wall again and again.

After a silence that seemed to go on forever, Lucifer finally spoke with a painful look in his eyes.

"I was scared."

Chloe stopped her sobbing and looked at Lucifer. It was the first time she felt that he was honest about his feelings and not trying to block all her attempts at finding out what was going on in him.

"Of what?" she whispered. 

Lucifer looked away, staring at a random point on the floor with his eyes. When he turned back to Chloe his eyes didn't look less painful. 

"The danger for Charlie was real. The demons had almost succeeded… I thought I would lose everything. I thought I would lose you, Chloe."

Lucifer saying her name sent a warm sensation through Chloe's body. He usually only called her by her name when he acknowledged his feelings for her. And when he was ready to let her in on his feelings. The wall he had put up before seemed to be crumbling little by little.

"I needed to protect you," Lucifer continued. "I couldn't stand the thought of you dying because of me. And I was also scared—" Lucifer stopped for a few seconds before he continued, "that if I didn't leave immediately I would not be able to find the resolution to go back. That I would choose to stay with you. That I would make you suffer."

Chloe's tears came back, running silently down her cheeks while listening to Lucifer's words. Her anger was gone when she realized that it was not only her that was hurting so much. When she realized how much Lucifer must have been torn between his own feelings of wanting to be with her and wanting to protect her.

"I'm so sorry, Lucifer. I… I…" Chloe's voice failed.

"You're right, it's my fault. I should not have left without talking to you. And I certainly shouldn't have treated you… like this when I came back. I guess being stuck in hell without you for so many years made me feel hopeless and bitter, and I couldn't see what's right and wrong anymore. Not that this is an excuse."

"Years?" Chloe wiped away her tears.

"Time works differently in hell than on earth," Lucifer replied. "It's very inconsistent, but generally time moves much slower in hell."

Chloe was shocked. The six months for her were horrible enough. She couldn't imagine him going through all the pain for several years. Slowly, she moved her hand and placed it on Lucifer's hand. When she looked at him, his face showed a brief smile.

"Please," she said softly, "tell me more about hell."

"Why would you want to hear about that place," Lucifer said. "There's nothing good about it."

"But it's a part of you. And I want to understand you better."

Lucifer just stared at her and Chloe began to think that she overstepped some boundaries. She was about to apologize for it when Lucifer continued to speak.

"Hell is… a dark place. A huge stone desert, with millions of canyons between millions of stone structures. And inside these structures are the rooms. Every person who goes to hell gets their own room and inside of it is their personal hell loop. Where they are punished for all eternity. By themselves… or by demons… or by me."

Chloe swallowed, unable to say anything. She had seen Lucifer's devil face several times. She had seen him entirely turning into a devil creature including the monstrous devil wings. She had seen how people freaked out after seeing Lucifer's devil face, turning into lunatics, trying to kill themselves to end their misery. She knew there was a dark side about Lucifer.

But still, she couldn't imagine Lucifer being in such a place. He surely had a lot of flaws but he was not evil, not to Chloe. What she saw was a man who tried his best to be a decent person despite all the flaws. 

"In the midst of all the stones," Lucifer continued, "there is a special structure towering up high above everything. This is my throne. From here I watch over hell. Sometimes I go down to check how things are going in the rooms. Or I just walk around in the darkness. In the cold depths of hell. Alone."

"You're not alone." Chloe squeezed Lucifer's hand softly. "Not anymore."

Lucifer looked at her, his eyes filled with a strange burning. It took Chloe a few seconds to realize that it was tears.

"I need to go back," he said. "I need to protect you." 

Chloe's head started spinning when she heard his words. She didn't want him to leave. She had missed him so much. All these months she had wished nothing more than him coming back. It was true, you didn't know what you had until you lost it. And she definitely didn't want to lose him again.

"You don't have to go back," she whispered. "There _has_ to be a different way."

"The demons need a king to keep them in check. Only an angel can be the king. And no other angel would voluntarily set a foot into that place if they can avoid it."

"I don't think this has to be the only way."

"I didn't find any other in the last years."

"That's because you were trying to solve this problem alone. Let others help you."

Lucifer pulled his hand from under Chloe's and she thought he would get up and leave. But he remained sitting on the couch, burying his face in his hands. Chloe watched him for a while, waiting for a response, but he didn't reply.

"Lucifer," Chloe said, "I know this is hard and scary. It is also for me. I have no idea about the dangers of hell. Maybe I'm too naive. But I… I don't want to see you gone again. I don't want to imagine you being in this place, suffering because of me."

Lucifer didn't react, his face still buried in his hands. Chloe reached out her hand and touched his shoulder.

"Let us find a way. Together."

Lucifer slowly moved his head until he faced Chloe. A tear was rolling down his cheek. Chloe had never seen him so sad, so vulnerable, and it hurt her seeing him like this. She wanted him to be happy.

At this point, Chloe couldn't hold herself back anymore and moved closer to Lucifer. Before he had a chance to react, Chloe reached out her arms and embraced him. She could feel Lucifer tensing up in her embrace and wondered once again if she had gone too far. But after a few seconds he seemed to relax and then she could feel his arms on her back.

Neither of them said a word. They were sitting there in silence, embracing each other, and it was for Chloe as if time had stopped. There was nothing else in the world anymore. It was only her and Lucifer.

Chloe didn't dare move and break this moment. She was scared that once she let go of Lucifer, he would leave her like he did last time. She couldn't let that happen again. It would break her. And she knew it would also break him. This time she would fight for him, fight for them to be together. She hugged him tightly, trying to show him her intentions through the embrace.

Her determination not to move broke when she felt a cramp in her arm. She slowly sat back straight and massaged her arm to release the pain. To her relief, Lucifer didn't use the chance to get away and kept sitting next to her. The look in his eyes seemed even sadder now and Chloe could see more tears.

She lifted her hand and softly touched Lucifer's face with her fingertips. When he didn't move away she let her fingers run over his cheeks, wiping away the tears. 

"I'm here for you," she said softly. "And I'll always be here for you." 

Lucifer tried to smile but it looked more painful than happy. At least he didn't object, didn't push her away. Chloe wasn't sure how she would have handled this now. 

But Lucifer continued to sit with her, and it made Chloe feel more confident. Her hands were exploring more of Lucifer's face now, gently going over his cheeks and chin. His stubble felt surprisingly soft under her hands. She had touched it before but always for a short time only so that she couldn't remember the feel of it anymore. 

When Chloe felt Lucifer's warm breath on her face she realized that she had moved even closer to him. His lips were partly open and Chloe wasn't sure if he was inviting her to go further or if it was an unintentional gesture. She closed the remaining distance between them and her lips brushed his, softly, testing his reaction. 

First there was no reaction and Chloe was about to pull back, too scared to mess things up between them. But then she could feel Lucifer kissing her back, gently, almost hesitating. The sweet sensation of the kiss filled Chloe, making her forget about all the bad things for a moment. This was it. This was what she wanted and had longed for so much the last few months. When their lips parted, Chloe could still feel the sweet taste on hers, making her unable to think clearly for a short moment. 

"I swear, if my phone rings this time, I'm gonna shoot it," she said jokingly to break the awkward moment. 

Lucifer chuckled. "I would actually love to see you doing that." 

Chloe was glad when she saw that Lucifer seemed to feel a bit better. He was smiling now and the pain seemed to have gone from his eyes. Chloe smiled back at him, drawn to his dark, beautiful eyes. 

His eyes.

Suddenly, the scene in the observation room appeared in Chloe's mind and a shiver ran down her spine. She took her hands off Lucifer and put some distance between them.

"Lucifer?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you threaten me with your devil eyes in the observation room?"

Lucifer sighed. "This wasn't my intention at all. I didn't even realize it until I saw the scared look on your face."

"Then why did it happen?"

"I'm not sure. Normally I can control my powers very well. But back then… I was confused and too scared of you coming closer. I couldn't think clearly anymore and I guess that extended to letting my powers show."

Chloe was relieved when she heard the explanation. She didn't want to believe that he intentionally tried to scare her, and even worse, used his devil powers for this. 

"Can you show me your eyes again?" she asked. There was something she had to know.

"What?"

"I want to see them again. Please?"

"Why would you want to see something like that?"

"Because they're a part of you. And I want to see all of you. Please?" she asked again.

Lucifer shifted around on the couch and Chloe could see that her request made him feel nervous. But he didn't object to her wish. A few seconds went by and then Chloe could see his eyes slowly changing colors.

Devil eyes. They were mesmerizing to the point where Chloe thought she'd lose control if she kept looking into them. A burning red of an intensity that was impossible to compare to anything she knew in this world, holding onto her, trying to drag her down, deep, deep, into the lowest depths of a horrifying nightmare with no escape.

Her heart was beating fast and Chloe tried to breathe slowly to calm herself down. She could not deny it. Seeing this part of Lucifer still evoked fearful feelings in her, no matter how much she tried to tell herself that she was fine with it. But knowing about it and actually seeing it were two different things. There was something inherently evil in these eyes that made people go insane when looking into them. 

But Chloe refused to give up so easily. She kept looking straight into Lucifer's eyes, trying not to avert her gaze. Her hand was shaking a little when she slowly reached out to Lucifer's face. As before, she started caressing his face, carefully, while not breaking eye contact. After a while she realized there he was not different than before. No matter how terrifying the eyes were, he was still the same. And he was all that she wanted.

Her hands wandered to the side of his head and touched his hair. It was a little messed up and Chloe wondered if it was like this in the afternoon. She couldn't remember, but truthfully, she hadn't paid much attention to him back then, still being upset at what happened the night before. All of this seemed so unimportant now. Everything that mattered was that they were finally here, together.

Chloe ran her hands through his hair until they were at the back of his head, then she pulled him close for another kiss. Lucifer seemed to be surprised for a moment but then he wrapped her arms around her and kissed her back, carefully at first, but soon with more intensity. Chloe felt like her heart was exploding when he pressed her closer to him and deepened the kiss. All the longing for him turned into a burning desire and she let herself fall into this feeling, fully embracing this moment.

She didn't care if this was hellfire taking over her. She didn't care if giving in to the devil meant becoming a sinner. None of this mattered at this point anymore. She had made her decision and she would not turn back.

After a seemingly endless moment, Chloe gasped for air, breathing heavily. This kiss was different from the kiss before, different from all the other kisses they shared before. It was hot and passionate, and Chloe was still trembling from the feeling of their mouths being together. Lucifer's eyes were on her, still red, burning like a fire. They seemed even more intense now, but maybe this was Chloe's imagination after the kiss they just had. 

"Mom?" 

Chloe turned to where the little voice was coming from and saw Trixie standing close to the couch. Her pulse went up when she realized the situation. Did Trixie see Lucifer's devil eyes? Chloe knew she had to tell Trixie about Lucifer's true nature but she preferred to pick the time herself. She shot a short glance at Lucifer and saw that his eyes were back to normal, but that didn't mean that Trixie didn't see them before. 

"What is it sweetie?" she asked, trying to make her voice sound normal. "Why are you not in bed?" 

"I heard you two yelling and then it was so quiet… And I was worried and couldn't sleep anymore." 

Chloe's heart warmed up when she heard her daughter's words. Trixie was a girl who cared very much for the people around her and it made Chloe feel blessed and proud. She also knew that her daughter loved Lucifer a lot despite him being weird to her all the time. 

"I'm sorry, Trix," Chloe said. "But everything is fine." 

"Really?" Trixie's face brightened up. 

"Yes. So let me bring you back to bed." 

"Can I stay with you for a bit?" Trixie asked and added quickly, "I don't think I can sleep now. " 

Chloe looked at Lucifer and was surprised when he nodded. 

"Yay!" Trixie ran around the couch and let herself fall into the small gap between Chloe and Lucifer. 

Chloe was relieved because that had to mean that Trixie didn't see Lucifer's devil eyes. Otherwise she surely wouldn't come so close and act so carefree right next to him. 

"Lucifer, can you tell me a goodnight story?" Trixie asked bluntly. 

Chloe held her breath. She was only waiting for Lucifer to start complaining. But he was oddly tame tonight and didn't object to Trixie's request. 

"A goodnight story? Hmm, let me think about one…" Lucifer made it look like he was thinking hard about a good story before he continued. "Once upon a time there was a little princess in a big castle…" 

It was not only Trixie but also Chloe who listened to the story with fascination. Lucifer was extremely good at telling stories—and Chloe had the feeling that the story he told them was not something he had made up but was a real event he had witnessed himself a long time ago, which made it feel like they were experiencing it themselves. 

Chloe closed her eyes and focused on Lucifer's voice. It was beautiful and captivating and it felt like it was taking her into another world, a world full of princesses and royal secrets. 

If only it could always be like this. A happy life without all these weird celestial problems, just her, Trixie, and Lucifer having a good time together. They could have more game nights, or watch movies, or go to the beach together, or… 

The last thing Chloe remembered before she fell asleep was Lucifer talking about green jewels that were glowing in the sun, something that followed her into her sleep, and gave her good dreams for once. 

* * *

When Chloe woke up it took her some time to realize where she was. Trixie was sleeping next to her on the couch, both of them covered with a blanket. A bottle of wine was standing on the table in front of her, together with two glasses. Two. That's right. She wasn't drinking alone this time, Lucifer was with her. Lucifer was… where the hell was Lucifer now? 

Chloe jumped up from the couch in panic, forgetting that Trixie was still next to her. 

"Mom? What is it?" Trixie asked, still half asleep. 

"I'm sorry, sweetie, I didn't mean to wake you up. Try to sleep more, okay?" Chloe made sure that the blanket covered Trixie before she started going through her apartment. 

"Lucifer?" she asked a few times in every room. There was no reply. Lucifer was not in the apartment anymore. 

Panic crawled up in Chloe. He was gone again without telling her. This had to be a cruel joke. Especially after the moment they shared last night. Chloe swallowed hard and tried not to let the tears come to her eyes. 

"Mom? Here's a message from Lucifer." 

"What?" Chloe ran back to the living room where Trixie was holding a small piece of paper in her hand. She took the paper with trembling fingers and read the few words that were written in elegant handwriting. 

_I need to do something. I will call you later. Lucifer._

Chloe fell on the couch and closed her eyes. He was not gone without telling her. He did not leave her again. Chloe could feel the relief in her. Then her thoughts went back to what happened last night and she smiled. For the first time in a long time she felt like her life finally started getting better again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, Lucifer and Chloe had a chance to talk about everything that happened since Lucifer left for hell. This was really needed after he left Chloe without telling her much, and of course even more so after coming back and behaving in a weird way. Those two seriously need to talk more often (in general) to avoid more misunderstandings and problems...
> 
> I feel a bit sorry for interrupting them again at the end, haha. But I had to put in the final moment with Trixie. She's so adorable and cares so much about Chloe and Lucifer. This is not the end of the story though, there's still more coming in the next (and final) chapter!
> 
> As always, thanks for reading!


	9. A Sign

"And that's why I called you. You two are the only ones that I know can do the job." Lucifer looked at the two people in front of him.

"I don't know why you think you can ask me for help again." Maze crossed her arms in front of her and glared at Lucifer. 

"I already told you that I'm sorry, Maze. What else do you want me to do?" 

"Let's see… For starters, you could fall on your knees and beg for forgiveness." She pointed at the ground in front of her. 

Lucifer let out a laugh, then his voice turned dangerously low. "I think you're overestimating your position, Mazikeen." 

"This is more the Lucifer I like," she replied and licked her lips. "Why don't you come at me and we fight it out?" 

"Oh, believe me, you don't want to lose." 

"Who said I would lose? You might have been stronger than me in the past but now you're just _weak_." 

"Weak, huh?" Lucifer laughed. "I will show you what's weak—" 

"That's enough, you two." Amenadiel stepped forward and held Lucifer back. "We didn't come here to fight." 

"I'd love a fight." Maze pulled out her knives and gave Amenadiel a provocative look. 

"Then I suggest you go to some shady place and beat up some thugs," Amenadiel said. 

"That's boring. I want a real fight." 

"You can have a real fight if you help me," Lucifer said, his voice being back to normal. 

"Yeah, I saw that yesterday." Maze rolled her eyes. 

"Well, you can count me in, brother," Amenadiel said. "I don't want anything to happen to Charlie again." 

Lucifer looked at Amenadiel, thankful that he was on his side. The Detective was right last night, he couldn't solve all problems alone. And especially not problems to an extent that was threatening the existence of earth. He needed to get all the help he could get, even though there were not many options he had. 

"Fine, but I want to kill the bastard behind this," Maze said. "After I torture them, of course." 

"Deal." Lucifer would have preferred to do it himself but if that's what was needed to bring in Maze then he would gladly give it to her. 

"Great." Maze smiled. "But don't think I've forgiven you. I'm still mad." 

"Thanks Maze," Lucifer said, not sure what else to tell her. It would probably take a long time for Maze to stop being angry. But her helping him meant that she had at least partly forgiven him, even though she would never admit that. 

"Don't forget about your promise." Maze turned around and waved her hand. "See ya." 

"She really didn't take it well that you left her here without telling her," Amenadiel said. "She was furious for the first couple of months. Linda was scared to even let her in the house." 

Lucifer sighed. "Believe me, if I could go back and change things I'd do it immediately." 

"Did you talk to Chloe?" 

"I did, yesterday after I brought her child back." 

"How did it go?" 

Lucifer thought about it for a moment. In the beginning, it didn't look good—the Detective got pretty angry at him. In hindsight, his explanations probably weren't the best. But he didn't know how else to handle it. Initially, he didn't want her to come too close to him and find out what he really felt. 

Things changed the more they talked though. He was surprised at how open she was to hearing more about his dark side, how open to actually seeing it. And that she didn't back off when he showed her. 

This had always been a fear somewhere in his mind ever since she saw his devil face for the first time and even more after he found out what she had planned to do under the influence of Father Kinley. That she wouldn't be able to fully accept it. During the final moment before he left, she said she was sorry for reacting so badly to his face before—but that didn't mean that she was completely fine with it. 

And he couldn't blame her for it. Not even if she never accepted it. There was something dark and bad about his devil face, his devil eyes. They were supposed to scare people, make them go insane. That was something he couldn't change about them.

But she asked him to tell her more. She even asked him to show her more. Lucifer was impressed by her determination and how she kept going even though her eyes clearly showed how scared she was. But there was something else in her eyes too. Something warm, something that gave him hope. 

"I think… it went okay." 

"Okay? What does that mean? Last time I saw Chloe she didn't want to have anything to do with you anymore." 

"I think we've resolved that problem." 

"You think? You don't sound very confident. Is she really okay?" 

"The problem is not her, brother. It's me." 

"What do you mean?" 

"I still don't know what to do. I know I need to stay until I figure out who's behind the demon, but then? I can't leave hell alone for long or more bad things will happen." 

"You still believe in the prophecy?" 

"I don't know. I really don't know."

"But you want to stay. Right?" 

Lucifer looked at Amenadiel and he felt the pain in his chest, making it hard to breathe. Why did things have to be so complicated? 

"I want to stay," he finally said and added, "if it's somehow possible." 

"Alright, Luci." Amenadiel stepped forward and gave Lucifer a pat on the shoulder. "I'll help you whenever I can. Just give me a call." 

"Thank you, Amenadiel," Lucifer said, feeling a bit better knowing that he had the support of his brother. 

"Okay, time to go find out about who's messing with us here." Amenadiel turned around and started walking away. "Talk to you later." 

* * *

Hours later, Lucifer was sitting in the library, with a huge pile of books on the table in front of him. He was trying to find any clues about the prophecy, but so far without any luck. It was quite a futile task because the absence of evidence meant nothing. Ironically, this was what humans called the Devil's Proof—while the existence of something could be proven by providing evidence, it could not be denied by the lack of evidence. 

He threw the book he was holding on the large pile and sighed. While trying to find anything useful, he had to wade through countless books that all told horrible stories about him. Some of them were true to some extent. But many of them were complete exaggerations or made up. It was no surprise that the Detective had been wary of him after she came back from studying him in books. And Father Kinley had probably given her the most terrifying material he could find. 

Lucifer closed his eyes and tried to dispel the negative thoughts. He couldn't change the books. And he couldn't change his past. The only thing he could do was to continue showing the Detective the person he was now and hope that this would be enough. 

After some minutes, Lucifer decided to stop with the research. Maybe he could ask Linda for help with that. Getting help from his friends made him feel somewhat relieved. But at the same time it made him remember how dangerous the situation was if he needed the help of their supernatural powers. 

Lucifer could feel the panic coming back, slowly but steadily. What if he was making a mistake? What if this was bigger than he could imagine? What if this was just another step toward hell coming to earth? The thought of putting the Detective at risk was too painful and it felt like he couldn't breathe anymore. Air. He needed to get some fresh air. 

After returning the books, he left the library as fast as he could. The outside felt much better, but the panic didn't want to go away. Lucifer started walking around, without really looking at where he was going to. Streets, buildings, parks, trees, people—everything looked the same, everything seemed blurry and unreal while he passed by them. It was almost as if hell was already here.

After an hour of aimlessly walking around, Lucifer's mind began to clear up. He slowed down his pace, focusing more on his surroundings. The world around him was still the same, no signs of hell overtaking earth.

Relieved to find out that he was only imagining things, Lucifer slowed down more and finally stopped in front of a building. When he looked up he saw that he was standing in front of a church.

"Oh my," he said, "don't tell me _you_ brought me here."

Lucifer looked up to the sky, but there was no response whatsoever.

"Of course," Lucifer said, "why would you ever talk to me. As always you're just toying with me."

Seconds went by with nothing happening.

"Can you hear me, Father? What is it that you want to tell me? Why did you bring me here?"

More seconds of silence that felt like a huge disappointment. 

"And here I was almost hoping to get an answer. That your _plan_ would actually be helpful this time and not just mess with me."

Lucifer paused for a few seconds. Normally, he would get angry now. But instead, the panic came back. It couldn't be a coincidence that he had ended up here. Was the silence supposed to mean that he was doing the wrong things? 

"I could really need your help this time. So if you care at least a bit about me, then please send me a sign!"

Silence—

"Lucifer!"

Lucifer turned around in shock when he heard the familiar voice. "Ms. Lopez! What are you doing here?" 

"I went to church," she replied. "What about you?" 

"Well, I… was just walking around." 

"Walking around? That doesn't sound like you. Hey, did you talk to Chloe?" 

"I actually did." 

"That's great!" Ms. Lopez smiled at him. "And?" 

"We… resolved some of the issues." 

"Then why do you still look so troubled?" 

"It's complicated…" Lucifer mumbled. He wasn't sure how to explain it to her. 

"Uh, I don't like that word," she replied. "Hey, do you wanna walk a bit in the small park behind the church?" 

Lucifer nodded. The park was almost empty when they arrived and the air felt calm and refreshing. 

"Does it have to do with you being away for so long?" Ms. Lopez asked.

"Yes and no… I mean, it was bad to be away for so long, but that's not the problem anymore."

"Then what is it?"

"It's about whether I can stay or not."

"Is there something you have to do somewhere else?" 

"That's part of the reason. But the other part is that it might be better if we're just not together." 

"But why?" Ms. Lopez made a sad face. 

"Because us being together might trigger bad things to happen. Like demons coming to earth." 

"Lucifer, I've gotten used to you acting all the time, but I don't think you should use it to run away from Chloe." 

Of course she would bring up the acting again. Lucifer sighed. He could try to talk in metaphors, but that would probably not be helpful either. He had to find a way to make her go along with what he was saying. 

"Ms. Lopez, I have an idea. How about we do a little role playing game to understand each other better?"

She snickered. "That sounds interesting. I love it!" 

"Good," Lucifer said. "Let's assume I am really the devil. And you are a messenger sent by my father."

"You mean the big guy?" she asked while looking up toward the sky.

"Yes, exactly."

"Oh… got it. Sounds interesting."

"Alright. So… I—the devil—come to earth because I don't like it in hell anymore. Earth is a lot more fun. And after a while I meet a lot of people who I care about. And I don't want to go back anymore."

"Okay." 

"But one day I find out that me being on earth and especially me being together with my first love—the Detective—seems to cause bad things to happen. Demons start coming to earth and it's possible that things will get even worse." 

"Lucifer, it's not your fault if bad things are happening. And especially not because you're with the people you care about." 

"Remember, you're a messenger of my father. So you need to tell me what he would tell me." 

"This is the message, Lucifer. It's not your fault."

"But I left hell, the place where he put me into, and this is causing chaos everywhere." 

"If leaving hell was really such a big problem then do you think you would be allowed to leave?" 

Lucifer couldn't reply immediately. This was something he had never thought of before. God was more powerful than anyone else—if Lucifer being absent from hell was really problematic, then his father certainly had the power to bind him there. Unless… 

"But what if this is exactly his plan?" he asked. "Making me enjoy my life on earth, then making me aware of what evil it will bring to earth and everyone I care about so I stay in hell forever?" 

"Lucifer, you really shouldn't think so badly about your father." 

"How can I not after what he did to me," Lucifer said in a bitter tone. 

"No doubt, there have been a lot of bad things from both sides in the past, but also a lot of misunderstandings." 

"Care to elaborate?" 

"The point is that not everything you think is bad and that your father is not there to play cruel games with you." 

Lucifer let out a laugh. "Very funny, Ms. Lopez. You almost got me." 

"I am not Ms. Lopez." She had a weird look on her face, a look that Lucifer had never seen before on her. Something that didn't allow questioning what she said. 

"Then what should I do?" he asked warily.

The look on the woman's face turned into a warm smile. "You should listen to your heart, Lucifer." 

Lucifer swallowed. "Even if this means bringing evil into this world?" 

"Sometimes you have to go through the darkness to find the light. To realize that not everything is evil."

"So it's not wrong?" 

"Everything has a meaning in this universe," she continued. "And you have to go this path and find _your_ meaning, Lucifer." 

He sighed. The answers seemed to become more and more confusing. 

"Hey, Lucifer." Ms. Lopez's voice interrupted his thoughts. "When are we starting the role play?" 

Lucifer looked at Ms. Lopez and realized that whatever or whoever was talking through her was not there anymore. He sighed, feeling slightly disappointed. There were so many more questions he wanted to ask. 

"I think I've actually found an answer already," he replied. "Thank you for your help, Ms. Lopez." 

"Oh… I don't know what I did but that's great!" Ms. Lopez kept smiling. "Is it a positive answer?" 

Lucifer smiled. "I think so… but I'll find out." 

"I'm so happy for you!" Ms. Lopez came closer and gave Lucifer another unexpected hug. "I really wish you two all the best." 

"Thanks," Lucifer said, feeling relieved. "See you in the office then." 

"Can't wait to hear more about it." Ms. Lopez winked at Lucifer, then both parted ways. 

Lucifer had already walked for a bit when Ms. Lopez suddenly yelled behind him. "Hey, Lucifer! Good luck!" 

He turned around and saw her in some distance, waving at him. The setting sun behind her gave the illusion that there was a glow around her. Almost like an angel. 

* * *

"Bing."

The elevator door opened and the Detective entered the penthouse. When she saw Lucifer, she ran to him and hugged him tightly. 

"Thank God you're still here," she said. 

"Well, I guess this time you can really thank Dad for it."

"Why did you leave so early this morning?" 

"That's a long story… Shall we sit on the balcony? I've prepared something to eat and drink." 

The Detective's eyes went to the balcony. She seemed hesitant about his proposal but finally nodded. 

Lucifer took her hand and led her outside to the balcony, where he had prepared the table with wine and grilled cheese sandwich. It was almost dark now and some candles on the table and the lights of the city gave the balcony a charming atmosphere. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't have a lot of time to prepare something fancy," Lucifer said. 

"That's fine." The Detective smiled and sat down. After some initial small talk she came back to her question about this morning. 

Lucifer wasn't sure where to even start. But if he was staying then he had to tell her everything so she would understand what was going on. 

"I was thinking about what you told me last night," he said. "That I can't solve everything alone. So I went to see Amenadiel and Maze and asked them for help."

"I didn't know they like to get up before six in the morning," she said with a grin on her face. 

"Okay, to be honest, I left early because it was too much for me," Lucifer said. 

The Detective's face became serious. "You mean… with Trixie?" 

"No, your child was fine." Lucifer paused, trying to find an explanation. "I mean more in general. It was pretty overwhelming. You… me… After everything that happened… And then the fear of what will happen if I stay…" 

The Detective placed her hand on his. "I know that things won't magically be alright. But I'm here for you." 

Lucifer smiled at her words. The Detective was a calm, rational person most of the time—something he would have found boring before meeting her, but now it gave him the stability he needed. 

"By the way, where was the demon that you were looking for?" 

That was a question he didn't want her to ask. He had tried to avoid this detail the night before but her asking about it now meant he had to tell her. 

"The woman who was supposed to babysit the children was possessed by the demon." 

"What? You told me she was only a bit unreliable. Oh wait… You just left out this important detail about her being a demon, didn't you." 

"I thought it wouldn't matter since the immediate danger was over. And I didn't want to worry you." 

"Lucifer, this is not how it should be." There was something in her voice but Lucifer couldn't tell if it was annoyance or disappointment. "If you want this to work between us you need to tell me these things. All of them. Don't hide them for me. I'm your partner, remember?" 

"Alright," he replied. She was right, there was no point in hiding things anymore. Worst case, hiding them would bring the Detective into danger if she didn't know about them. 

The Detective seemed to be fine with his answer, but the mood had turned weird and they continued eating in silence. 

"Lucifer?" 

"Yes?" 

She looked at him as if she wasn't sure how to continue. His chest suddenly felt tight, making it difficult to breathe. 

"Are you… staying now?" 

He knew it. This was the topic he wanted to avoid the most but at the same time he knew that he couldn't avoid it. He stood up and went to the balcony railing, where he looked into the distance, thinking about what to say. 

The Detective got up behind him as well and he could feel her getting closer. When he slowly turned around he realized that they were standing in almost the same position as when he left her to go back to hell. And she probably realized it too. 

"I can't see into the future," he said, choosing his words carefully. "I don't know how things will turn out if I stay. They could go horribly wrong."

Lucifer stopped speaking, trying to think about his next words. The Detective didn't say anything either and only nodded slightly, as if to encourage him to continue. 

"I can't promise you that I can stay," he finally said. "I can't promise you that everything will be fine. Being with me means living with a dark side next to you, around you. Can you do that?" 

The Detective didn't reply immediately. Lucifer could see that the situation was not easy for her. And he would not have been surprised if she backed off now, if she used this last chance to get out of it.

"I've already made my decision, Lucifer." She was speaking slowly and clearly, looking right into his eyes. "I want to be with you." 

Her words were overwhelming, so much that he had to put his hands on the railing behind him to support him. He never expected someone to go that far for him. He never expected someone to care that much for him. 

The Detective took a step closer to him and laid her hands on his chest. "I told you that I'd be there for you. That we would find a way together. And I mean it." 

He smiled, still overwhelmed by her. "You're a really strong person. That's one of the things I like about you."

She smiled back at him and Lucifer couldn't stop thinking how beautiful, how amazing she was. The Detective… no… _Chloe_. The woman who gave him everything he needed. The woman who gave him what he was missing in his life, who filled the emptiness in his soul, making him complete. 

He took his hands off the railing and put them around Chloe's shoulders. "Chloe. I can't promise you that things will be alright. But I can promise you that I won't leave without talking to you again. And that I will do my best to protect you. That I will do my best to find a solution to make this work." 

Chloe nodded without saying anything. They were looking at each other in anticipation but neither of them took a step further. The air felt incredibly heavy around Lucifer, weighing down on him, making it hard to do anything. 

"You want a drink?" he asked, trying to lighten up the mood. 

"Yes, please." 

They separated awkwardly and Lucifer went inside the penthouse. He took one of the best whiskeys he had from his bar and poured it into two glasses. When he turned around, Chloe was standing behind him.

"Here's your drink." He pressed the glass in her hands, then took his own and emptied it in one go. 

"Thanks." Chloe only sipped it.

The silence grew uncomfortable but Lucifer wasn't sure what to do except for drinking more. There were too many things on his mind and he didn't know where to even start sorting through them.

"Hey," Chloe suddenly said. "Can you play something for me on the piano?"

"Sure." Lucifer was glad for the distraction. He put away his glass and sat down at the piano. Chloe followed him and sat down on the bench right next to him, like she did a few times in the past. 

Feeling nervous from Chloe's presence next to him, Lucifer started playing. But it went better than he expected and after some time he could feel the relaxing effect of the music. 

"I really like it when you play for me." Chloe smiled at him. 

"Well, if you want, I can do it more often for you." 

"Sounds great," she replied. "Then I guess that means I will come here more often."

"My door is always open for you, Chloe."

"Mmm good." She moved closer to him and started touching him softly with her hand, moving from his chest upward to his neck and face. Her lips were incredibly close to his already and he could see in her eyes that she wanted him to respond to them. 

Lucifer leaned in and his lips met hers. They were warm and soft—and they were longing for him as much as he was for her. His mind went blank for a second and he had to make some conscious effort to stay focused. 

Kissing Chloe was something else. He didn't know how many thousands of people he kissed before, but it was never like it was with her. It wasn't even the technique or anything else he could put in words. But something was there, something that made it so very special that he could forget the world around him in an instant.

During the kiss, Lucifer noticed Chloe moving her hands and doing something on the vest he was wearing. He broke the kiss and his eyes went to the gap between them. Chloe was already done unbuttoning the vest and tried to take it off him. When Lucifer saw this, his nervousness came back immediately, making him move back unintentionally.

"Is something wrong? Do you not want me to do this?" Chloe's eyes looked shocked as if she had made a terrible mistake.

Lucifer tried to breathe. He wasn't even sure why he reacted like this. Ever since he met Chloe he was drawn to her. He had made countless sexual advances toward her, though admittedly, while their relationship progressed they had become less and less. Not because he wasn't interested in her anymore—that was definitely not the case—but because he realized that there was more between them than just jumping each other's bones.

He should be happy about this situation. And he actually was happy. He wanted Chloe like he never wanted anyone else before. But something was holding him back, some voice in his head, screaming at him.

"Do _you_ want to do this?" he asked.

"What do you mean? Of course I want to do this, otherwise I wouldn't have started it."

The voice in his head kept screaming. This had to be something he was imagining. He closed his eyes and tried to escape from the screaming.

"Lucifer, are you okay?" Chloe's voice sounded worried now.

He opened his eyes. Chloe was still sitting next to him.

"I… don't know what's wrong," he said. "Maybe I'm scared that this is not real, and that I will wake up and find myself still being in hell." 

"This is not hell," Chloe said softly and touched his hands with hers. "And I'm really here with you. I'm not gonna disappear." 

The screaming started to fade away and Lucifer found it easier to breathe again. Chloe's hand on his and her smile had a soothing effect on him. She could always calm him down, one of the many things he liked about her. 

"Right," he said and turned to face the piano. There were still many thoughts on his mind, burning questions and annoying insecurities. He hated how he was not in control over his feelings.

"Do you want me to leave for today?" Chloe asked next to him.

"No." His answer came immediately and was louder than he expected. He didn't want her to leave. He needed her by his side. She made him feel better, made him feel like the entire situation would be fine.

"Please stay, Chloe," he said in a softer voice. "I need you." 

"Okay." Chloe stayed sitting and looked at him, smiling. Then her smile turned into a wide grin and she said, imitating his British accent, "See? You need me." 

Lucifer let out a small laugh. "I remember saying something like this." 

"Yes. Cause I'm the one." 

"... on the list." Lucifer laughed. "I'm impressed you remembered what I said back then." 

"Sometimes you're saying some pretty dumb stuff that's hard to forget." Chloe's grin got wider. 

"Dumb stuff? Does someone forget who she's talking to?" he said in a playfully dangerous voice. 

"Let's see, a man-child who likes to make stupid sex jokes and does the weirdest things all the time?" 

"Ha!" 

Lucifer could breathe again. Chloe's teasing words had exactly the right effect on him. They were freeing him from his negative thoughts, making him remember the good times he had with her in the past. 

"You know I'm only kidding, right?" she asked. "I'm talking to the most wonderful man I've ever met. Who's funny and charming and who makes me feel good. Who might be a little weird sometimes, but that's just part of what I love about him."

Lucifer's heart warmed up hearing the sudden praise from her. She had told him countless times in the past how annoying he was. But they had come a long way and the annoyance had turned into something else. She accepted him for who he was, be it the devil part, or the many little quirks he had.

He smiled and he could feel his heart longing for her even more now. This had to be real. There was no way this could be a trick from hell. She was right there, and she was gorgeous in all aspects, making him feel so wanted, so _loved_. 

And he couldn't give up this feeling anymore, not after he had found it. He wanted to be with her, he wanted to _feel_ her love, knowing she would be there for him. 

"So, _Detective_." Lucifer leaned closer to Chloe, their faces only a bit apart. "What happened to your vow from back then?" 

"What vow?" 

"You know, that you would never ever sleep with me. Unless hell freezes over." 

Chloe smiled. "Well, I think it's about time that place freezes over, might also solve our problem of escaping demons?" 

"That's definitely worth a try." A devilish grin appeared on his face before he finally closed the distance between their lips. All the shyness from their first kisses was gone. He couldn't hold himself back anymore, and neither could she. 

When Chloe was breathless, he kissed the corner of her mouth, then he went down her jawline and neck, placing kisses on every inch of her skin. It was so soft and her scent so intoxicating—a scent he had missed it so much, that made him feel home. 

With skillful fingers he opened her blouse and bra and they fell to the ground effortlessly. The sight in front of Lucifer was gorgeous, so much that he was stunned by it for a moment. Then he got up from the bench, lifted Chloe up in one swift movement, and placed her on the piano in front of him. 

"Wow, what was that?" Chloe looked confused.

"I'm sorry, I think I was too fast for human perception. But you don't have to worry." 

Lucifer usually didn't have problems with controlling his angelic powers but Chloe's presence had all kinds of effects on him. He couldn't remember when he felt the kind of excitement he was feeling right now, something that was driving him almost crazy, but in a positive sense. 

Chloe smiled at him from her elevated position, encouraging him to go on. He continued where he left off from her neck, kissing down further, gently caressing her breasts with his mouth and hands, taking his sweet time to explore those parts of her that were forbidden for him before. 

He had seen her naked already—in the Hot Tub High School movie and once in her apartment—but being close to her, being able to actually touch her, this was completely different. He had fantasized about it many times, so much that doing it in reality now was almost overwhelming. 

His mouth was still busy on the upper parts of her body when he opened her pants and slid his hand into her panties. When he touched her she let out a moan, so loud in the otherwise quiet penthouse. 

"Lucifer…"

"Yes, darling?" 

"Mmmng," was all she could reply. 

Lucifer moved his fingers slowly in circles and her reaction to him was so enticing that it was getting hard for him to stay focused. Without stopping his finger movements he came close to her face and whispered in her ear, "Shall we relocate? This is not the most comfortable place." 

"Mmm yes," she replied. 

He slowly removed his hand from her panties. "I definitely need more of this." 

Chloe blushed hearing his words and it was so adorable that Lucifer felt a strong warm wave going through his body. This was better than anything he could have ever dreamed of. 

Lucifer picked her up from the piano and started carrying her to his bedroom. She felt feather-light in his arms, thanks to his angelic powers. Her arms were wrapped around his neck and her eyes were on him, so affectionate and at the same time filled with a hunger for more. 

He carefully lowered her on his bed and she immediately pulled him in for another kiss. Lucifer's mind went into an ecstatic state somewhere between thinking how amazing she tasted, how soft her lips felt like, and not being able to think at all anymore.

"Chloe…" He raised his head and looked at the beautiful woman under him. The bedroom was only dimly lit but he could see her perfectly well with his eyes. The curves of her body, her hair spread out in a wild mess around her face, and her eyes that were directed at him and only him.

"Tell me, Chloe," he said, "what is it that you truly desire?"

"You know that doesn't work on me, right?" she teased him with a smile.

"Oh darling, believe me, I have other ways to make you talk." He grinned while tracing his fingers along her body from her neck going downwards.

She laughed and it was the most beautiful laugh he had ever seen. It was so enchanting that Lucifer almost forgot what he was doing.

Then she became serious again. She reached out her hands and cupped Lucifer's face in her palms. Her eyes were looking straight into his eyes, filled with desire.

"I want to be yours."

The words set Lucifer on fire like nothing else before. Countless eons with countless encounters had shaped him, gave him the experience of pleasure but it was never like this before. This one was _special_ and he was about to drown in pure ecstasy, ready to give her everything he had in return.

He smiled. "If that's what you wish, my love."

* * *

When Lucifer woke up in the morning it was still slightly dark outside. He could feel the warmth of a body pressed to his back and an arm wrapped around him. Memories of the night before came back to him, only partially clear and the rest lost between a deep yearning, satisfaction, and pure bliss. This was still real, right? He hesitated for a moment, savoring the feeling of closeness for a bit longer, before he finally turned around.

"Chloe…"

"Good morning." She smiled at him.

"You're still here."

"Of course I am. I told you I wouldn't disappear." She leaned to him and kissed him.

Lucifer didn't remember the last time he felt this lighthearted and happy. Waking up and seeing Chloe's face the first thing in the morning was one of the best feelings, something he wanted to have every morning if possible. 

And the relieving part was that the world didn't get destroyed the moment they finally had their moment together. Maybe what Ms. Lopez told him was really true.

"What are you thinking about, Lucifer?" Chloe asked while drawing lines on his arm with her fingers.

"I had a very interesting encounter yesterday," he said. No more hiding things from her.

"With who?"

"I'm not sure… but they might have been a messenger from Dad."

"How's that possible?"

Lucifer told her how he ended up in front of the church and how it seemed like someone was talking to him through Ms. Lopez.

"This sounds crazy but I'm so used to crazy now that I think nothing can surprise me anymore." Chloe shook her head. "But isn't this good? It means that things will turn out fine."

"I'm not so sure about that yet," he said with caution. "Even if this was indeed a messenger from Dad, I don't know if I can trust them. Besides the fact that the message was confusing anyway. It could again be a way to manipulate me."

"How would it manipulate you?"

"Making me believe that everything is fine, just to show me that what I'm doing is wrong and that the only place where I should be is in hell, suffering there for all eternity."

Chloe gave him a warm look. "I know you have a lot of issues with your father. And I'm not someone who will press you to resolve them. But—" She made a meaningful pause. "Whatever will happen with you and him, I will be on your side."

"Thank you, Chloe." The words warmed up Lucifer's heart. Chloe always managed to say the right things, to give him hope and strength.

"Hey, I have an idea," Chloe suddenly said. "Let's make this our own case that we're investigating."

"Our own case?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Chloe nodded. "Look, we have everything we need for it. A demon who came to earth but we don't know how yet. Someone who's responsible for it and now probably waiting in the shadows to do more. A prophecy to unravel. A father far away, refusing to speak to his son directly. So many mysteries to resolve!"

Lucifer laughed. "I see, _Detective_. Then I will gladly put my case into your capable hands."

"Not just my hands. We're in this together, _partner_."

Lucifer looked into Chloe's shining eyes and smiled. He knew that things wouldn't be easy. They would be dangerous and maybe even painful. The fear inside him wasn't gone completely. But he was not alone anymore. He felt like he could do everything when he was with Chloe.

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, I want to thank all my readers for reading my story, especially if you managed to make it until the end! Also a big thanks to everyone who left comments on the chapters, it was always nice and encouraging to read all of your comments :)
> 
> With this chapter the story comes to an end. There are still a lot of open questions, but they were not really planned to be part of the story. The main point of the story was seeing how Lucifer and Chloe find together after the season 4 finale, and this is done now (though I'm sure I could write a lot more after this - I'm thinking about maybe writing a sequel but I'm not sure yet).
> 
> This last chapter is much longer than originally planned but I'm so happy about how it turned out! Overall it was a lot of fun writing this story and I learned a lot along the way. I plan to write more stories in the future - see you then! ❤


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